If there were evidence that your period could give you cancer, would you take a remedy to stop your menstruation completely? Studies have shown that taking the Pill for as little as one year can reduce your risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer by 40 percent, but is that enough for you? What if you skip the week of placebo pills and continue taking the hormones straight through? Most of us have done that to save our vacation or honeymoon from the monthly visitor, but is it safe to do all the time?

"The Pill" is one of the most studied drugs in American history. When the Pill was invented as a method of birth control, the creators knew they could decide when women would bleed and when they wouldn't. In 1960, a drug that prevented pregnancy was a difficult sell to women, let alone one that could eliminate monthly bleeding. There were no pregnancy tests back then, so the Pill creators decided to continue monthly bleeding as proof the Pill worked, even if the period was man-made. It appears there was never a medical reason to have a woman bleed every month; it was a marketing ploy.

That marketing ploy worked very well. Most women continue to believe that monthly bleeding is needed to clean out the reproductive system and eliminate waste or build-up. However, if you take the pill to stop your period, you aren't preventing the waste from exiting, you are avoiding any build up from occurring in the first place.

David Grimes, M.D., clinical professor in the department of ob-gyn at the University of North Carolina, explained it to Glamour Magazine like this: imagine the lining of the womb is like a lawn. During a normal menstrual cycle the hormones surge, as if fertilizer was poured on the grass. By the time ovulation occurs, two weeks after your period, the lawn is thick and ready for a human seed. When the egg doesn't meet the sperm, fertilizing stops; the grassy bed dies and is flushed from the body. When a woman takes the Pill, its synthetic hormone cocktail works to keep the uterine lawn trimmed very short. Women only bleed during the placebo pill week because the hormone supply has suddenly been withdrawn, triggering the death of the small amount of endometrial lining that has grown, which is then shed.

According to some medical professionals, the Pill has the ability to lesson the risks of cancer and possibly eliminate the need for monthly periods. Cancer occurs when an error in the genetic make up of a cell causes it to divide and multiply out of control. Every month a woman's uterus grows blood vessels and tissue to line the uterus in preparation for pregnancy. When conception never occurs this protein is discharged, only to start the entire process over. This continual cellular division can lead to damage of the endometrial lining and give the cells an opportunity to lose control during the routine.

Why didn't our foremothers have to worry so much about cancer? When Homo sapiens evolved into hunter-gatherers women were bleeding less. They had fewer than 160 periods over their lifetime, spent more time pregnant (six live births on average) and breast fed longer. This kept up a steady wave of progestin, a reproductive sex hormone that halts a woman's period.

While clinical studies research the pros and cons of having a period every month, women across the globe will hold their breath, waiting for the "ok" to toss out their boxes of tampons and one-week-a-month baggy pants!

-- Kristy Paige

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