Even Greener Pastures

Great and very funny article in my German weekly (paper version), unfortunately, it's not free online:


The gist of it is here, however:


tl;dr
If you're on the pill, there's no need whatsoever to stop taking it for a week every three weeks: menstruation is your body's garbage disposal. Pill -> no ovulation -> no garbage. Apparently, it really is that simple. So, why on earth did I feel obliged to menstruate while I was on the pill? Seems one of the guys who developed the pill in the first place was a fervent Catholic who thought it would make the Pope happy to know women were still bleeding as per God's order (that last bit of info's only in the German article). So, they told doctors that's how the pill was to be taken, and that's what the doctors in turn told their patients.

Please tell me you hadn't known about this, either - I felt so, so stupid when I read the German article. Now I see the English article is about 10 years old and feel even stupider.

I'd heard about this before. Don't remember when. Anyway, I've never been on the pill, and so I haven't paid much attention.

I thought the pill brought some side effects like increased chance of stroke and cancer, and the practice of taking it to completely avoid menstruation made the chances even worse.  Am I ill-informed?

Seems like such a trade with Mother Nature would be too easy to come free.

@Neal

I think you're right about the related health risks in general, at least that's what they say, but the chances don't seem to increase with skipping menstruation, which isn't real menstruation anyway. Once you're on the pill, there's no such thing as a real period. In terms of the related risks, one has to be aware of how biased the information may be because the pharmaceutical companies want you to take it and certain groups don't. It is said to increase the risk of some types of cancer while actually significantly decreasing the risk of others. The heart- and blood vessel-related risk seems to vary greatly depending on what pill you're taking and whether there are any other risk factors (pre-existing medical condition, smoking etc.). It's probably not great for the environment but I have a feeling this is not the type of argument you or Jerry would want to use

So, why on earth did I feel obliged to menstruate while I was on the pill?

I think Alharacas touched an interesting topic here. It could be because bleeding once a month creates the illusion that what's happening inside your body is still "natural" and "right". Some women, if they stopped having periods, would go "hallelujah" of course, but some might think "crap, what have I done to my body?" So psychology and marketing might have played some role in this.

The belief that women are obliged or entitled to having a period is not just a Catholic thing, though. I think it's strongly embedded in the society because I could see its effects when I was working with children who have special needs. I don't want to go into too much detail but the "blessing" often turns into an absolute nightmare for both the girl and her parents/carers, there's pain and mood swings, both often resulting in self-harm, confusion, mess... the mess... words cannot describe how horribly wrong things can go. And the noble, high-minded people who say it is the girls' right to go through all this are never there to deal with the consequences.

This idea that actual menstruation, "the bleeding" is part of "The Curse" is actually a very new idea to me, and I have been in religious circles (but not Catholic) all my life.

Hypothetically speaking, Eve was a fully functioning woman and menstruation itself was part of that.  Or wasn't it?  Is is Roman Catholic dogma that Eve never menstruated before The Fall?  If so I never heard that before.

The exact nature of the Genesis curse on Eve seems to have more to do with sin affecting relationships between husband and wife, mother and child than anything physical.

If I was a woman being reminded every month that "Eve sinned first!", wouldn't make me feel closer to God.  I don't think menstruation was part of The Curse.  Women just call it that.

Quote from: NealC on March 31, 2019, 01:53:27 am

I thought the pill brought some side effects like increased chance of stroke and cancer, and the practice of taking it to completely avoid menstruation made the chances even worse.  Am I ill-informed?

Seems like such a trade with Mother Nature would be too easy to come free.

And deep vein thrombosis.

True. But on the other hand, celibacy is the only method of birth control guaranteed to be both reliable and harmless.

If I was a woman being reminded every month that "Eve sinned first!", wouldn't make me feel closer to God.  I don't think menstruation was part of The Curse.  Women just call it that.

I don't know how serious Alharacas was when she used the word curse, I wouldn't use it myself. It can be a real nuisance, though.

This idea that actual menstruation, "the bleeding" is part of "The Curse" is actually a very new idea to me, and I have been in religious circles (but not Catholic) all my life.

Hypothetically speaking, Eve was a fully functioning woman and menstruation itself was part of that.  Or wasn't it?  Is is Roman Catholic dogma that Eve never menstruated before The Fall?  If so I never heard that before.

The exact nature of the Genesis curse on Eve seems to have more to do with sin affecting relationships between husband and wife, mother and child than anything physical.

If I was a woman being reminded every month that "Eve sinned first!", wouldn't make me feel closer to God.  I don't think menstruation was part of The Curse.  Women just call it that.

Interesting, Neal. I'd always taken Gen. 3.16 (In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children) to include menstruation. It's part and parcel of having children, isn't it?
Female animals seem not only to have a lot less trouble giving birth, they don't tend to tearfully curl up with a hot water bottle either, do they?
But yes, also, "No more that time of the month" would not have had the same ring to it, would it?

I bet no one thought I would chime in on this thread, but since everyone is talking so much I felt like saying something. First, I thought the pill functioned by tricking a women‘s body into thinking it was already pregnant, thus blocking another pregnancy. So, the pill plays with hormones I suppose. No medicines are without side effects and I guess it should come as no surprise that the pill has some of those. But, I will admit, I never even thought about the pill`s effect on menstration. I would have thought it would have blocked menstration, but I can see the developers of the pill (late 1950s maybe?)  figuring that would not be a wanted side-effect. So, I will say if you have a normal-like period on the pill it‘s fairly amazing. I could see that as something women would want. A pill to prevent pregnancy but still make them feel like everything else were normal.

I don`t know about all this religious stuff about a „curse“ and all associated with women having babies, but I will say women did come out with the short of the stick, as they say, when it came to the baby-making procedures. If it were up to me, or Jerry or Neal or probably any other man on the planet to go though what women go through to have babies, this planet would have died out a long time ago. We`d be about as populated as Pluto (that makes me recall how a few years ago someone discovered that Pluto wasn‘t a planet but a swiriling mass of gases or something, and I saw this bumper sticker that read, „Pluto. You‘ll always be a planet to me.“)

So yes, the ladies have my sympathies on the menstral cycle issue. And, if that were‘t bad enough, I wonder if Neal or Jerry ever watched a childbirth? I watched my first being born, my daughter back in 1991. The hospital was sort of pushing dad‘s being in the room at the time, for some reason. I should have told them I‘d sit this one out. But, I didn‘t and had to watch. Well, it was an eye-opener I will say. My ex-wife was not one to go in for „natural“ child birth, so she wanted all the pain relief they could give her. And, even with an epidural block and whatever else they could give her, she was literally screaming her head off, yelling „doctor, get it out of me!“ And, it was a very messy affair I have to say. There was sort of that „ewe“-factor I got,  like „I don‘t think I need to watch this.“ I think all I was probably was thinking was, „better her than me on that bed.“