That Time of the . . . Year

And this from a former anorexic, who lost her period for two years: "I almost felt I was without an identity. You lose a lot of things without it. I think the mood swings, which everyone complains about, including myself, do have an upswing and bring about huge swells of creativity and sensory awakenings."

I get that. In college I was someone who changed my body to succeed in two sports that demanded much from me. But why couldn't I remain just as female and fertile while still being a hard-core athlete? I didn't have the surges of emotion that come with the menstrual cycle's monthly peaks and valleys of hormones. What some see as the terrors of PMS (premenstrual syndrome), I saw as actual feelings.

The Choice

Simone de Beauvoir, in her landmark 1949 book "The Second Sex," called menstruation the "essence of femininity." Perhaps Seasonale will prompt a revision of this definition. If periods are a pain and inconvenience, why should women sacrifice a week of every month for the cause of femininity? They shouldn't, if their period is indeed a sacrifice.

For me, I am absolutely a more thoughtful, creative and reflective person with my period, someone who actually slows down and takes stock of my life and decisions when I am menstruating. (This makes biological sense, given the hormone fluctuations that happen with the menstrual cycle.) I actually feel more: pain, joy, confusion, passion, all of these more acutely. Without my period I took fewer emotional risks and was certainly less kind to my body.

A decade later, without any help from hormones or contraceptives, I get my period each month. The cramps are worse than I remember ever having as a teenager, but I won't take Seasonale. I missed out, not only on something my teammates shared, but also on a monthly process that would have kept me in touch with a body I have not always liked, and have often pushed to its limits.

My experience is particular. With 2.5 million women of reproductive age having menstrual disorders that could be ameliorated by fewer periods, and others who just plain see menstruation as a nuisance, I won't judge a woman's right to choose.

Women's reproductive health choices inevitably become public debate, steeped in "cultural overlay and guilt trips," says Felicia Stewart, an adjunct professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco.

The fact is, women differ greatly in what their menstrual cycle is like and what it means in their lives, and until today they have had to discover and deal with that relationship. The message that the ad campaign for Seasonale sends to women is that menstruation is a hindrance. If women and girls do not have full information -- if the messages of menstrual freedom are not balanced with a glimpse of menstrual possibilities -- then they may choose Seasonale and miss out on a part of themselves, as I believe I did.

I will turn 30 this year and sometime soon I may want to take advantage of the gift the menstrual -- or better called reproductive -- cycle offers, to have a child; my period is a caretaker of that. Perhaps more than the childbearing aspect, I appreciate my period not for the blood (which I won't glorify), but as an indicator of a body I am treating right and that is capable of extraordinary things.•

Elizabeth Gettelman is a freelance writer based in Berkeley, Calif.