Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stump Mom Never told you?
Speaker 1: From house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. This is Molly and I'm Kristen. Kristen.
Speaker 1: Sometimes when we do that little introduction like that, it
Speaker 1: makes me think we're about to launch into sort of
Speaker 1: a cheesy women's commercial about that special time of the month,
Speaker 1: like Aunt Flow when aunt Flow comes to visit and you,
Speaker 1: you know, you're all cranky. You don't, you don't feel good.
Speaker 1: You're like, hey, girlfriend, why's so down? I know it's
Speaker 1: very and they're very sort of obscure in terms of
Speaker 1: what they're talking about, but you don't know what it is.
Speaker 1: You know what it is, but you don't understand, like
Speaker 1: why the girls wearing like a whole bunch of sweaters,
Speaker 1: especially when they're on the beach. Yeah, Like it's very
Speaker 1: it's very sort of hidden, but you're but you know,
Speaker 1: whatever they're talking about is bad. Yeah, yeah, I would
Speaker 1: say that campon Max bad commercials really make it seem
Speaker 1: very very unpleasant. But I guess they are trying to
Speaker 1: to sell sell their wares, right, but no, you grow
Speaker 1: up watching these commercials and you think this is something
Speaker 1: that you only talk about in the ladies room with
Speaker 1: your friends, and nothing will be right for a few days. Yes,
Speaker 1: But then along came these other commercials. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you remember these, Kristen. It was in two thousand
Speaker 1: three when there's this commercial that showed these women, you know,
Speaker 1: frolicking on the beach, like wearing these beautiful sun dresses
Speaker 1: and just being like all free and in love with life.
Speaker 1: And you know what that commercials for. Tell me. It
Speaker 1: was for birth control that eliminated your period, so that
Speaker 1: you only had four every year as opposed to thirteen
Speaker 1: every year, so you get rid of all those extra
Speaker 1: cranky days. You can wear your swimsuit whenever, whenever you
Speaker 1: so desire, without having to worry about anything. Yeah, I've
Speaker 1: seen I've seen commercials like that. There. There are a
Speaker 1: number of birth controls like that on the market, and um, yeah,
Speaker 1: they always seem to show women, uh, foot loose and
Speaker 1: fancy free in swimsuits. Right. They make periods of this
Speaker 1: very big lifestyle voice. You can trade in all your
Speaker 1: bulky sweaters for your swimsuit, and you can trade away
Speaker 1: all your monthly inconveniences for up totally awesome lifestyle at
Speaker 1: these commercials are to be believed, right, But it's a
Speaker 1: little controversial to get rid of a period, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: like when your mom sits you down and tells you
Speaker 1: what's going on with your body. She never says, hey,
Speaker 1: there's this option of getting rid of it. You sort
Speaker 1: of think you're stuck with it until you menopause. Right,
Speaker 1: you don't invite and flow over. She just barges, barges
Speaker 1: right in she is the guest you cannot kick out. Right,
Speaker 1: Since the FDA has approved these pills, you know they
Speaker 1: can't be too harmful for your body. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, I think a lot of women wonder whether
Speaker 1: or not missing a period is healthy. Yeah, so let's
Speaker 1: explore sort of the health related things before we get
Speaker 1: into all the sort of social complaints some people might
Speaker 1: have about getting rid of the period. Uh. First off,
Speaker 1: what's what is interesting to me is that we do
Speaker 1: have a ton more periods today than any of our
Speaker 1: ancestors ever. Did We have about four hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: periods in our lifetime, right, that's then that's opposed to
Speaker 1: around hundred and sixty periods over our ancestors lifetime, and
Speaker 1: that's because we're having children later and we're living longer,
Speaker 1: so it just prolongs the whole cycle, right, and also
Speaker 1: having fewer children. So obviously we we probably don't need
Speaker 1: our bodies to menstrate that often, do you think, Well, Molly,
Speaker 1: there are some benefits to having your period. First of all,
Speaker 1: the bleeding eliminates excess iron, so that's good for your body.
Speaker 1: And then during your cycle, uh, women's blood pressure actually
Speaker 1: drops a little bit, so that reduces your chance of
Speaker 1: heart attack and strokes, so that's a plus. And there's
Speaker 1: also a possibility that menstruation fleshes out bacteria from your
Speaker 1: reproductive system. So you know, it's looking pretty good for periods.
Speaker 1: Maybe we do need them, but let's clarify that those
Speaker 1: are periods that are not regulated by birth control. That
Speaker 1: is a natural period, there's sort of a natural flow,
Speaker 1: I mean, the natural drop in the in the blood pressure.
Speaker 1: But it seems like a lot of women get on
Speaker 1: birth control to regulate their periods. But we probably should
Speaker 1: point out, Kristen, that these are periods that aren't regulated
Speaker 1: by birth control, not hormonally adjusted period so to speak.
Speaker 1: So before we get into birth control, modifying your period.
Speaker 1: I will give you the negative side of having a period.
Speaker 1: You gave me a few positives. I have way more
Speaker 1: negative rate on me as I'm sure you. I'm sure
Speaker 1: you can guess from watching any sitcom. There's p MS.
Speaker 1: I think I've heard of heard of that before. It's uh,
Speaker 1: sort of an excuse stumped on a lot of women
Speaker 1: when they start to get cranky, Are you having your
Speaker 1: period soon? It's almost like sort of a joke. But
Speaker 1: experiencing p MS, I say, is no joke. I never
Speaker 1: experienced PMS. Molley, I find that hard to believe because
Speaker 1: and not just that's not a personal slam on Kristen.
Speaker 1: I find that hard to believe because a majority women
Speaker 1: have experienced one or more premnstual symptoms to include headache, cramps, fatigue,
Speaker 1: mood swings, depression, and insomnia. And they're often severe enough
Speaker 1: that women are missing work, they're missing class if they
Speaker 1: do manage to go in there, having very decreased productivity. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and some women have it so bad that they suffer
Speaker 1: from something called uh disnnorrhea. Molly, am I pronouncing that
Speaker 1: crasp correct? And that includes severe cramping nausea and diarrhea, right,
Speaker 1: and if you're you're also at risk for anemia because
Speaker 1: if you get rid of too much of that iron
Speaker 1: that you're getting rid of in the body, that that
Speaker 1: can put you, you know, a negative balance, endometriosis and
Speaker 1: ovarian cysts. It's not not a good list. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: then molly um things things are about to get worse.
Speaker 1: They're about to get real heavy in here, Kristen the
Speaker 1: Big Sea cancer m And here's the theory on how
Speaker 1: this happens. Basically, even though it's you know, doesn't seem
Speaker 1: like a huge deal, the very act of releasing an
Speaker 1: egg and having a period is very kind of violent
Speaker 1: in the body. What happens is the immature eggs are
Speaker 1: called follicles, and they develop, and when the follicle produces
Speaker 1: an egg, that scars the ovary. So already got one scar. Now,
Speaker 1: if you don't get pregnant during the time in which
Speaker 1: the eggs sitting there, if it remains unfertilized, then your
Speaker 1: unur in lying sheds and that's your period. So basically,
Speaker 1: when you have a scar, your body's got to heal itself, right,
Speaker 1: So cells are regenerating, they're trying to heal that spot.
Speaker 1: But when cells regenerate, that's when you get cancer if
Speaker 1: something goes wrong with that cell division process, And that's
Speaker 1: the recipe for any cancer. So when it's happening around
Speaker 1: where you're having you know, eggs releasing blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: then you're talking ovariant and endometrial cancer. And basically we
Speaker 1: know that this happens because when a woman gets pregnant,
Speaker 1: her chances for both of those cancers go way down,
Speaker 1: basically because she's not having a period for nine months
Speaker 1: and so her body is spared that very violent menstruation
Speaker 1: process for nine months. And oral contraceptives that prevent the
Speaker 1: ovulation process from happening may also lower the chances of
Speaker 1: developing ovarian and endometrial cancer. So that brings up Molly
Speaker 1: birth control control because it I read an article I
Speaker 1: was written by Malcolm Gladwell of Blink and Tipping Point fame,
Speaker 1: but he wrote this essay a long time ago about
Speaker 1: how um, if the founder of birth control had just
Speaker 1: marketed this pills and anti cancer pill, then maybe you know,
Speaker 1: organizations that have trouble with the idea of contraceptives, like
Speaker 1: the Catholic Church would have accepted it more readily, because
Speaker 1: who's going to turn down anti cancer pill now. Molly
Speaker 1: John Rock, who invented birth control, was ironically a devout Catholic,
Speaker 1: and he decided to go with the twenty eight day
Speaker 1: pill cycle in order to mimic the woman's natural menstrual
Speaker 1: cycle as closely as possible, because he thought that if
Speaker 1: it seemed natural, then Catholics might be more inclined to
Speaker 1: buy it. Yeah, it would be acceptable. I guess he
Speaker 1: figured on figured out early on that it didn't matter
Speaker 1: how many days passed before we started taking the PLACEBA pills.
Speaker 1: You could wait twenty one days, you could wait forty two, etcetera, etcetera. Um.
Speaker 1: But because you know, he was facing he really wanted
Speaker 1: the Catholic church to accept his product. He just made
Speaker 1: it as natural as possible. And he also he thought
Speaker 1: that might have some marketing benefits also. And at this
Speaker 1: time in the what the late nineteen fifties, Uh, there
Speaker 1: was no such thing as a reliable home pregnancies test.
Speaker 1: They couldn't just run out to the store if they
Speaker 1: were thought they were pregnant and find out. So the
Speaker 1: having a period every month was another way that women
Speaker 1: could know whether or not they were pregnant, had one
Speaker 1: in the oven. Yeah, I had a little, a little
Speaker 1: bun in the oven. So he thought that would be
Speaker 1: a big marketing employ But as it turned out, where
Speaker 1: his Catholic marketing employ came into being, he he failed
Speaker 1: there because the Catholic Church still didn't want to accept
Speaker 1: the idea of contraceptives. But women started to really get
Speaker 1: into it um and then they did start to get
Speaker 1: sneaky and and figure out what he knew about about
Speaker 1: elongating your cycle, so to speak. They figured out that
Speaker 1: if you skip your week of placebo pills, uh, the
Speaker 1: ineffective pills at the you know, the last week of
Speaker 1: every pack, you could skip a period. Yeah. So if
Speaker 1: you had, you know, a wedding coming up, and you
Speaker 1: didn't want to have your period on your honeymoon beach trip,
Speaker 1: beach trip, hot date done, just skip the period and
Speaker 1: keep going. So basically, instead of just taking the three
Speaker 1: weeks of hormone pills and then a one week of placebo,
Speaker 1: just start your next pack of birth control. So, Molly,
Speaker 1: if we can for taking birth control, and we can
Speaker 1: tinker with our menstrual cycle and decide when we do
Speaker 1: and don't want to have it. Are we really having
Speaker 1: a real period? No, we are not. Those are fake periods.
Speaker 1: And that's why earlier we were clarifying, um that all
Speaker 1: those health benefits that come from you know, releasing the
Speaker 1: iron and lowering your blood pressure, those don't come if
Speaker 1: you're on birth control, because you're essentially having a fake period.
Speaker 1: When you have a real period, you're un in line
Speaker 1: a shedding because there's an egg there that needs to
Speaker 1: get out. But when you have a period on birth control,
Speaker 1: that line is shedding just because you're changing changing hormonal levels. Kristen,
Speaker 1: that's our favorite word, hormone. Hormone. So a woman really
Speaker 1: doesn't need to bleed every twenty one days. So I mean,
Speaker 1: if that's true, then it does sort of make sense
Speaker 1: these birth controls that just elongate the time in which
Speaker 1: you uh aren't bleeding, basically because that sounds convenient. That's
Speaker 1: why all those girls and those commercials were wearing their
Speaker 1: bikinis all the time or in those long flowing dresses.
Speaker 1: They hadn't a care in the world. They had all
Speaker 1: that extra money from not buying tampons, and you know,
Speaker 1: doctors and f d A have given it the stamp
Speaker 1: of approval. But not everyone is on the skipping period boat. No.
Speaker 1: I think the most prominent UH person speaking out against
Speaker 1: US I found was a doctor named Susan Rico who
Speaker 1: called menstrual suppression, which is the act of you know,
Speaker 1: not having a period. Listen to this Christian, the largest
Speaker 1: uncontrolled experiment in the history of medical science. Whoare we go?
Speaker 1: That is some pretty strong language. Well, Rigo Rego did
Speaker 1: have a point mulling. I mean, that's kind of an
Speaker 1: extreme statement to make, but she and other doctors were
Speaker 1: opposed to menstrual suppression because of how it affected women's
Speaker 1: hormone levels. When you're taking oral contraceptives, it maintains a
Speaker 1: higher level of estrogen in your body so that you
Speaker 1: don't have a period. Now at the same time, that
Speaker 1: drops your natural levels of testosterone, and that can lower
Speaker 1: your libido, reduce your the strength of your bones, and
Speaker 1: we can heart health. So those are the health reasons
Speaker 1: behind this argument against menstrual suppression, right. And additionally, people
Speaker 1: who are just on you know, a twenty one day
Speaker 1: cycle birth control may have heard about the risk of
Speaker 1: estrogen causing breast cancer. So there's the possibility that with
Speaker 1: that increase in estrogen in your body, you might be
Speaker 1: more at risk for breast cancer. But again that's very
Speaker 1: sort of circumspect um, you know, observation. No, no scientific
Speaker 1: says linking breast cancer and estrogen yet. Yeah, and and
Speaker 1: we we we do have to say though that the
Speaker 1: jury is still out on whether or not there are
Speaker 1: long term effects for menstrual suppression. Their studies going on
Speaker 1: right now, but a lot of the testing on whether
Speaker 1: or not they're safe are performed on people who are
Speaker 1: older than eighteens. So we don't know if girls start
Speaker 1: getting on this birth control when they start having their periods, say,
Speaker 1: you know, twelve thirteen years old, doctors aren't exactly sure
Speaker 1: whether or not down the road that's going to how
Speaker 1: that's going to affect their bodies, right, and there might
Speaker 1: just be other consequences for women who are of age.
Speaker 1: We don't know how to affect future fertility if you're
Speaker 1: on it for something like twenty years. And there are
Speaker 1: people who, just like with regular breath control, shouldn't take it.
Speaker 1: And those are women who smoke and are over the
Speaker 1: age of thirty five. And you know, there are side effects.
Speaker 1: It's not all white dresses and bikinis. The number one,
Speaker 1: probably least convenient side effect of taking these mentual suppressing
Speaker 1: contraceptives is breakthrough bleeding. Since you only have your period,
Speaker 1: I think four times a year with a lot of these,
Speaker 1: there's a good chance that you will spot when you're
Speaker 1: not supposed to. And I think that it's so severe
Speaker 1: that in the clinical studies at least women were dropping
Speaker 1: out just because it was so inconvenient massive It wasn't
Speaker 1: the care for your lifestyle they've been promised, and there's
Speaker 1: still a social stigma attached to it. Some women are
Speaker 1: just uncomfortable with the idea of stopping their period. Feels
Speaker 1: like they're kind of playing god a little bit playing god,
Speaker 1: and you know, it seems unnatural. You know, they're sort
Speaker 1: of the argument, if if we're meant to have it,
Speaker 1: we should just go ahead and have it. And also,
Speaker 1: you know, I think it also kind of depends on
Speaker 1: how uh, your mother explains it to you. Is it
Speaker 1: a rite of passage, is it what makes you a woman?
Speaker 1: Or is it, you know, something to be ashamed of
Speaker 1: and something you just have to kind of grit and
Speaker 1: bear well. I think the good thing about all of this, Molly,
Speaker 1: is the FDA has approved it. It's a safe option,
Speaker 1: and it all comes down to choice and hormones and hormones. Well, Chris,
Speaker 1: you're starting to send a little bit like one of
Speaker 1: those cheesy tampon commercials. Wah wah wam, where's sweater? But
Speaker 1: if you want sort of a no nonsense look at
Speaker 1: menstrual suppression with no cheesy red bouncing balls or lumpy sweaters,
Speaker 1: there might be a couple of bikinis, though there might be.
Speaker 1: Then you should check out the article do you really
Speaker 1: need to have a period every month? At how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com And if you have any questions, comments,
Speaker 1: or suggestions you'd like to shoot to me or Molly,
Speaker 1: you can email us at mom stuff at how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com for moral thiss and thousands of other topics.
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