Period Wars, Round 274

I will admit upfront that I am in a foul mood today. But I’m not sure that this is a huge factor in how much this article about menstrual suppression has pissed me off.

The article is, of course — and inexplicably since the news is rather outdated and seems to have no recent developments — about the birth control pill Lybrel. Lybrel is the first birth control pill on the market specifically designed to suppress periods entirely (for as long as the pill is taken). It follows on the heels of Seasonale, which causes periods only once every three months, and other types of birth control like the NuvaRing, which allow the same benefits if so desired (for some reason the article doesn’t see fit to discuss anything other than pills). And here, we enter the ludicrous and false debate over whether women think that their periods are Teh Awesome or evil inconveniences that must die, die I say! Are periods What Make Us Women(tm) or What Holds Women Back(tm)? Oh, the quandary.

And if that isn’t eye-roll inducing enough, the two non-existent sides in this false debate are divided among flighty pharmaceutical company loving women and feminists.

To view the Lybrel Web site, you might think that women everywhere have been waiting desperately for the chance to postpone their periods. Clearly, Wyeth, the drug giant behind Lybrel, is banking on it. But it turns out that not all women want to cure the curse. Wyeth’s own research says so. Still, the ease with which women can now postpone their periods has sparked a new debate on menstruation. Teenage girls are wondering whether avoiding messy periods is as simple as taking a pill. Feminists see Big Pharma treating something natural and essentially feminine as an illness. Lybrel is the first drug to allow women to stop their period for good, and some scientists say its long-term effects are unknown.

Ever since Lybrel was released, new questions about menstruation have been turning up in newspaper Op-Eds and glossy women’s magazines and on TV news. Karen Houppert, author of “The Curse: Confronting the Last Unmentionable Taboo: Menstruation,” says it’s no coincidence that public debate over periods has surfaced at this particular cultural moment. “This conversation about periods gets recycled in times where there’s high anxiety about women’s role in society,” she says. Today, from the “mommy wars” to the possibility of a high-powered woman in the White House, there is plenty of anxiety over women’s changing roles. So it’s no wonder that Lybrel has cracked open the debate and has women asking: Is this the end of menstruation?

First of all, I sincerely hope that no self-respecting feminist would use the term “feminine” to describe a natural bodily function unique to females.

And now a question: who the hell is asking “is this the end of menstruation?” Are you? Have you heard anyone ask that question until this very moment? Do you think that it’s a reasonable question now that you’ve heard it? Raise your hand if you do. Because by the time we get to the end of the article, we’ll see that even Lybrel’s strongest critics don’t think that it is.

I don’t think that I’ve made it any big secret here that if we’re going to draw artificial lines in the sand between Period Suppression Good and Period Suppression Bad, I’m going to begrudgingly go stand over on the Good side. I’ll be mightily pissed off about it, though, because I find it to be a stupid question: period suppression is good for women who want it and bad for women who don’t. Kind of like how birth control pills in general are good for women who want them and bad for women who don’t. Sterilization is good for women who want it and bad for women who don’t. Giving birth, adoption, abortion, etc. are all good for women who want them and bad for women who don’t. Is this really so difficult?

As I may have mentioned here before, and have no trouble mentioning now, I use (a generic version of) Seasonale birth control pills. And I love them. I remember the first time I heard about them and became very, very excited about the prospect. I sing their praises whenever the opportunity arises. Before they went generic, I became unable to afford them and went into a strong depression over the idea that I would have to give them up (thankfully, I have a very nice gyno who gave me a bunch of free samples). If anyone asks me what I think of my birth control, I will say that it has been fucking awesome and would recommend it to anyone who is comfortable with using birth control pills and who finds bleeding every twenty-something days to be undesirable.

I’ve also never tried to push my contraceptive of choice on anyone or tell them that periods are bad and any woman in her right mind wouldn’t choose to have one. Because I don’t think that things are so simple. And I don’t think that everything I feel about my experiences as a woman is the same as how all other women feel about their experiences as women. But here is what Clark-Flory has to say about the contraceptive that I love:

In 2003, the birth control pill Seasonale, which promises women only four periods a year, made a far more glamorous premiere on the contraceptive scene with former “Sex and the City” columnist Candace Bushnell as its spokeswoman. The icon of Fendi feminism declared, “When you think about what women have accomplished with 13 periods a year, think about what we can accomplish with only four.” Bushnell added: “We have come a long way, but we’ve only just begun.”

The pink pill, tag-lined “Fewer Periods. More Possibilities,” was promoted as a lifestyle choice. The drug’s current Web site offers a period planner allowing women to schedule their cycle around “vacations, business travel, romantic encounters, and family reunions.” In other words, there is no need for public premenstrual breakdowns, missing a meeting because of debilitating cramps or dampening a sexual flame by having to bashfully explain it’s “that time of the month.” The take-away marketing message: A woman in control has menstruation under control.

I’m the first to admit that there is something unsettling in this approach to marketing. I don’t think that period suppression is a necessary step for liberated career women. In fact, I think that such a suggestion is downright silly. I also find the idea that a woman has to have “control over menstruation” to have control over her life is laughable. It just doesn’t make sense.

At the same time, I find it to be pretty damn insulting that the reasons given for why women might consider the drug are both purposely limited for effect and trivialized. If someone does have mood swings so badly that she encounters “public premenstrual breakdowns,” is that not a legitimate concern? If a woman’s cramps are so severe that she has to stay home sick — a problem that I myself have experienced, and used to experience regularly — should she just suck it up and shrug her shoulders because a drug that could help her is seen by some as “unnatural” or anti-feminist? Is not wanting to have sex on the heaviest days of your period and having a libido high enough to not want bouts of sexual activity interrupted every month something that she should be ashamed of? Because I’m not embarrassed.

Of course, as Clark-Flory acknowledges in the article, the “periods” you get while on hormonal contraception aren’t natural, either. They’re not even technically periods. As far as doctors can tell, they are unnecessary, and studies have also shown that women who take birth control uninterrupted by periods are less likely to get pregnant while taking the pill. But none of this seems to matter. Could period suppression be dangerous? I doubt it, but it’s certainly possible. Do I think that women should have all of the available information to help them make a decision about their birth control? Absolutely. What bothers me here is that the other side of the supposed debate is not taken even remotely seriously. All of the concerns and reasons why women might want to suppress menstruation are dismissed or ignored all together. Those of us women who do are painted as dupes who bought into a marketing campaign instead of making our own informed decisions (I had heard about the potential of a pill like Seasonale years before it came out, and hoped for that day long before I saw a commercial). And periods, of course, are highly romanticized:

Feminists note that cycle-suppressing contraception is being marketed to young girls as a way to avoid the angst of teenage transition. “It’s infantilizing, [the message that] you don’t have to go to that next stage of maturation, you can hover in this liminal state between childhood and mature adulthood,” says professor Mary Vavrus, who teaches courses in feminist communications at the University of Minnesota. Period suppression is being sold as a cosmetic fix, a way for women to avoid bloating, feel bikini-ready and be able to slip into skinny jeans. “Just like getting breast implants or doing different cosmetic surgeries, you’re objectifying your body in some troubling ways,” Vavrus says.

With all the good press for period suppression, observers worry it will be hard to persuade young teens to welcome menstruation as an entry into womanhood. “The problem is the ‘welcome to womanhood’ idea is not such a welcome thought to them,” Houppert says. “It’s viewed as a restrictive role. It means girls who are 12 and 13 are leaving their childhood aside for other concerns that have to do with appearance, boys and weight.” It’s hard to imagine menstruation no longer being the cultural cornerstone of girlhood, or reading Seventeen magazine without its TraumaRama feature of menstruation horror stories. But, Houppert says with a sigh, “if you can get rid of menstruation the same way you can with acne, we’re going to go for it.”

To Vavrus, drugs like Lybrel medicalize a normal bodily function. “This means having to give over that thing that makes us uniquely female to a big pharmaceutical company that has no problem flooding our bodies with hormones,” she says. “A lot of women are concerned that after the silicone breast implant disaster and the estrogen therapy disaster, there’s a well-founded fear that pharmaceutical companies are willing to sacrifice women’s health for their own profits.” Houppert adds: “It recasts menstruation as a disease, and I don’t think most women see it as that.”

Let’s clear up some of the misconceptions, here. I do not see menstruation as a disease. Never have. I don’t see body hair as a disease either. Yet I still find it to be unpleasant and am well-aware that many other women hold a radically different view on that subject. And I honestly couldn’t care less whether other women shave, wax, whatever or don’t. I get really annoyed when hair-removal is marketed as a female necessity. Personally, I see no evidence that these pills are being marketed to young girls and the article doesn’t seem to give any. If someone does present me with this kind of advertising, I will be appalled and the first to say that a line has been crossed. If period suppression were also to be marketed as a necessity — something else I have personally never come in contact with or seen credible evidence for, but would not deny if brought to my attention — I would, just like with hair-removal, be very annoyed.

Just as annoyed, in fact, as the suggestion that I shave my legs and use Seasonale because the TV has me fooled and I want a pat on the head from the patriarchy, not because I find hair on my legs to be itchy or because I dislike having heavy cramps, waking up to period stains because I dared to roll over in my sleep and buying and changing tampons and pads.

While again noting my statement that I do not think it’s appropriate to market birth control and period suppression pills to young girls (though wouldn’t find anything wrong with them taking it for good reason), I think that it’s poll time again. Among the ladies, who here saw their period as a “welcome to womanhood” and viewed it as a pleasant and celebratory occasion? If you did, I’m very happy for you. I think it’s great, and would love to make this a more common experience. I also think that you’re in the minority.

Girls are getting their periods at younger and younger ages. I was 11. I was the first among my friends and it was traumatizing and embarrassing. For those who got their periods later than their friends, I understand that this can also be traumatizing and embarrassing. In fact, I find the idea that bodily changes correspond to “womanhood” to be very troubling and part of what contributes to our culture of sexualizing children. I was not a woman at 11-years-old. I also wasn’t a woman when I started growing breasts at 10. My friends weren’t any less of women if they didn’t get their periods or start growing breasts until they were 13, 16, whatever. I was a kid whose body was changing against her will. Other girls are kids whose bodies don’t grow up fast enough for their liking. I wish that this hadn’t been a difficult, emotionally-fraught time for me. I hope that we can find ways to make it better for other girls. But I’m also pretty deeply insulted at the idea that girls feel these things because of marketing, that feeling like you’ve lost control over your own body is an invalid emotion or recent phenomenon.

To addresses Vavrus’s concerns, I don’t think that most women are avoiding menstruation because they want to fit into skinny jeans. I can’t fit into skinny jeans no matter what “time of the month” it is. And I don’t wish to avoid bloating because it makes me look less cute and perky, but because bloating is uncomfortable and painful. As for the pharmaceutical companies being willing to flood women’s bodies with hormones without worrying about the women themselves, I certainly don’t have any delusions that they do care. I also know that they are the exact same hormones in every other birth control pill, just taken for an extra week every month. Lybrel doesn’t flood one’s body with hormones; it slightly increases the dose of hormones that a woman would get from taking any other kind of hormonal contraceptive (the levels of which, by the way, have been decreasing for decades).

But Vavrus isn’t done, yet.

Vavrus says her female students often tell her they are greatly reluctant to suppress their periods. She adds that having a period is a powerful form of female solidarity, one that can’t be broken by even the most high-powered marketing campaign. “Even though we have been socialized to detest our period and to really dread its onset, it still is one of those things that bind us together as women,” she says. “It’s the only thing we really have in common in a very fractured and splintered world. It’s one thing you can always count on other women to understand.”

Ultimately, the availability of Lybrel, with its potential to stop periods, only reminds women of how important that time of the month is. “The way we experience our bodies is profoundly yet invisibly shaped by cultural norms of which we’re often unaware until they’re challenged,” says Alma Gottlieb, author of “Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation.” For many women, monthly menstruation — and the associated doses of Midol, hot-water bottle applications and trips to the feminine hygiene aisle — is the gateway to and foundation of womanhood. “It’s just too bizarre,” says Gottlieb, “to imagine our bodies otherwise.”

Well, Vavrus, that’s just fucking awesome for your students. So if the damn marketing campaigns can’t break the amazing natural female solidarity that women have because their uterine linings shed whenever they’re not pregnant, why the hell are you accusing women like me of suppressing our periods because we want to fit into a certain outfit or see our periods as a disease?

Though I sound flippant with regard to women who don’t want to suppress their periods — and I do indeed think that they probably are the majority — I genuinely do think that’s great for them. Women should do what makes them happy. I have no desire to try to drag other women into taking a drug they don’t want to take, despite the fact that others seemingly want me to stop taking it because they personally find it distasteful. In fact, I don’t even have any desire to take Lybrel myself.

And seriously: “It’s the only thing we really have in common in a very fractured and splintered world. It’s one thing you can always count on other women to understand.” I adamantly disagree. First of all, I don’t think that there are any experiences that all women-born-women have in common. That includes periods, because as I’ve said, some women have horrible menstrual histories and others have pleasant ones. The menstruation itself doesn’t make it a shared experience any more than having a clitoris makes the meaning and experiences with our clitorises the same.

And all of that said, I think that there are many experiences that women can share, not universally, but along a wide scale. Like growing breasts and body hair. Like a first orgasm. Like realizing for the first time that the majority of men in this world do not have your best interest at heart. There are first sexual experiences, regardless of whether they’re with a man or woman. For mothers, there is pregnancy and childbirth. For straight women, there are pregnancy-scares. And what about bra-shopping?

To Gottlieb, let me say that Midol doesn’t work for me (strong cramps — I need Aleve), I’ve never used a hot water bottle in my life, and I have no desire to buy “feminine hygiene” products down at the local store. They’re expensive, smell funny, wasteful, almost always contain bleach and actually give many women rashes. I’m a Ludapads and sea sponge fan. You see? I’ve menstruated for many years, and my experiences are not the same as all women’s. Absolutely amazing.

Clearly, this is a personal subject for me, though I’d like to think that I’d have the same reaction if I didn’t personally suppress my period. An article about how women who don’t suppress their periods are stupid, old-fashioned and don’t know what’s best for them would get my blood boiling at similar levels.

But because I don’t think that all women’s menstrual experiences are the same, what do you think? Do you like your period or hate it? Do you think that menstrual suppression is a godsend, a horrible mistake or neutral personal choice? And does the idea that menstrual suppression fucks up women, harms some mystical female connection and should be discouraged fit with your version of feminism?