New Birth Control Pill Wins Approval

A new birth control pill has just won approval fromm the FDA. It will eliminate women's periods. It is called Lybrel. If it is taken every day, the pill can halt women's menstrual periods indefinitely and prevent pregnancies. It is the latest approved oral contraceptive to depart from the 21 days on, 7 days off regimen that has been standard since l960's when the sales of birth control pills first began. It is manufactured by Wyeth and is designed to put off periods altogether when taken without break. The pill contains a low dose of two hormones. The pill isn't for everyone an FDA official said. About half the women enrolled in studies of Lybrel dropped out because of irregular and unscheduled bleeding and spotting that can replace scheduled menstruation. If you think you don't want to go down this road, this is not for you. In one test, 59% of the women who took it for a year had no bleeding or spotting during the last month of the study. Because of the dropouts during the study this translates into only about 1/3 of all the women enrolled in the study.