More on Menstruation Cessation

Now that Seasonale (birth control pills managed to plot menstruation on a quarterly basis) is old hat, we're close to having a NO menstruation pill plan available to us. Heather Corinna made a fantastic post on the subject HERE:

I can already go swimming anytime I want when I'm menstruating, with or without use of tampons, pads or cups. I can go without underwear whenever I choose, and being able to do so is hardly a huge issue in my life as a woman anyway.

It's a much-appreciated rant with a much deeper political perspective than my recent personal post on the same subject.

One thing I think she doesn't acknowledge enough in this entry, though, is that scads of women WANT to stop having their periods. For a lot of these women it's not a desire they were brainwashed into having, they really. don't. want. to menstruate. Yeah, I tend to have a hard time relating to them, and yeah I *suspect* that a bunch of them ARE sort of brainwashed into not wanting them by all of the cultural negativity surrounding our "dirty messy" bodies. Still, there are a lot of women who got the craving for period-free life just based on their own bad experiences with menstruation. Bad cramps, bad pms, and yes, even bad distracting hassles are big enough motivations for a lot of women to take extended vacations from menstruation. I'm not sure that all or even most women who want to cease to menstruate do so only as submissive suckers to the patriarchy or that their complaints could be as easily addressed through diet change, exercise, etc. I know, I know . . . good health shouldn't necessarily come easily, lifestyle changes are probably better remedies for most of us, etc. . . but I like having pharmaceutical options at our disposal and not worrying about getting pregnant to boot. Healthy or not, period-death-by-hormone-therapy is an option many women WANT to have and have and have BEGGED for.

I *do* think they need to "beware", as Heather says, that the effects of going period-free for extended periods of time haven't been researched enough to go into it thinking there will be no bad health consequences. Then again, lots of those women are currently sticking chemical-riddled toxic cotton up their cunts every month or spending shitloads of money on nasty-ass non-biodegradable waste products anyway so they're probably just trading one boxload (get it? BOXload?) of ill effects and expenses for another. I would love to see this KILL the "feminine hygiene" industry as we know it. Yes, I'd prefer better education and positive choices kill it first, but in their sad absence I'll accept menstruation cessation as a slayer of the giant deodorized tampon/pad industry. I'm sure some of my fetish fans cringe to hear me say it, but whenever I go down the "feminine hygiene" aisle I feel like screaming and hurling those insulting damaging poisonous products into the air, stomping on them, slapping women who are buying them, etc.

I would hope that women are smart enough not to go year after year after YEAR with no periods whatsoever, but maybe I'm giving humans too much credit in the realm of common sense. Writing this with GWB in the White House (unless he's on vacation again) should remind me not to trust people too much to elect to make smart decisions. But whatever, at least these ones will be on the pill and not breeding!