返回生物消息FDA Approves New Birth Control Pill
Saturday, September 6, 2003; Page A07
The Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved a new type of birth control
pill that enables women to skip their monthly menstrual cycle for about three
months.
The new pill, called Seasonale, should be available by prescription by the end of October, according to Barr Laboratories Inc. of Woodcliff Lake, N.J., which developed it.
Seasonale uses the same hormones in the same doses as most traditional birth control pills and so is considered equally safe. Standard birth control pills can increase the risk for blood clots, heart attacks and strokes, especially among women who smoke.
The difference is that each packet contains 84 hormone pills instead of 21, followed by seven placebo pills, so the reproductive process is suppressed for three months instead of three weeks.
Many women have been using traditional birth control pills that way anyway, either because they want to skip their period for a special event such as a wedding or a vacation or because they want to minimize their periods to avoid cramps, bloating, crying jags, anxiety and other problems.
In tests, Seasonale won praise from women who suffer from intense problems associated with their periods. But Seasonale also sparked debate over what is considered "natural," whether it is wise to manipulate a woman's reproductive cycle with hormones for long periods of time and whether Seasonale is a manifestation of societal biases against menstruation.
-- Rob Stein
c 2003 The Washington Post Company