NPR Examines Controversy over Lybrel

NPR: 365-Day Birth Control Pill Stirs Controversy:

A new birth control pill that eliminates women's monthly periods gained Food and Drug Administration approval this week. The contraceptive, called Lybrel, is the first form of birth control that's taken every day, 365 days a year.

Will Saletan, national correspondent for the online magazine Slate, talks with Madeleine Brand.

Listen to the segment.  See also William Saletan's Period. The End?, which appears in this Sunday's Washington Post:

Since the dawn of hormonal contraception, women have debated the wisdom of suppressing their periods. Crunchy feminists think it's unnatural; techno-feminists think it's liberating. I'm a guy, so I'll stay out of the fight over womanhood. But I'll say one thing about nature and liberation: Pharmacology is dissolving them. Menstruation as we know it isn't exactly natural. And for some women, abolishing it isn't exactly liberating.