That's Fit

Our male readers likely quit reading after the headline, so fellow females, it should be just us girls in here. And I have a question to ask you: What do you make of the new "no-period" pill Lybrel?

The pill, whose name looks to be a funky phonetic spelling of liberal and is meant to make you think "liberty," is set to be approved by the FDA soon. Traditional birth control pills have women take a 7-day dose of sugar pills after three weeks on the drug, to mimic a women's cycle. Though it seems like you're having a "period," I've read that actually that 7-day break is only there to mimic your cycle and make you feel more comfortable. The period your having has no function at all. That's perhaps why drug makers have been creating drugs that cut back periods more and more. First there were drugs like Yaz that shortened periods to three days or less, then Seasonique cut them back to four times a year. Lybrel promises to eliminate them altogether (although 18% of women in trials reported breakthrough bleeding, so I'm not sure that promise will hold up.)

The plethora of birth control methods leaves nobody out these days -- from pills to devices to chemicals to...well, you get the picture. With the release of quite a few new birth control "pills" on the market in the last few years, there have been some safety concerns on several of these products.

From the possibility of developing blood clots to other complications, and advocacy group is pushing for the banning of birth control products (or renewing a protest, I should say) against birth control products that have these possibly dangerous side effects like twice the risk of blood clots and the like.

The advocacy group also sad that newer contraceptives are no better than older ones that did not show more risks for patients.