Female students found a new option for birth control at the University Health Center starting this term.
The health center pharmacy added Seasonale, a birth control pill that reduces the frequency of menstruation from once a month to about once every three months, to an already extensive lineup of birth control options, pharmacy manager Julie Dewsnup said.
Seasonale was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2003, but the concept of using birth control pills to set a quarterly menstrual cycle is not new, according to Dewsnup. She said before the health center had Seasonale, staff prescribed birth control pills such as Nordette. The two products have the same active ingredients, and Nordette can work the same as Seasonale if a person eliminates the week’s worth of placebo pills included in the month-long regimen for a woman to menstruate, she said.
“We had an equivalent for people who wanted the same thing,” Dewsnup said. “It’s been around forever. It’s just marketed differently.”
The pharmacy added Seasonale on Jan. 7 when it was approved for coverage by the Family Planning Expansion Project, a government-funded program providing free birth control and access to low-cost reproductive health care, Dewsnup said.
If not covered by FPEP, students would have to pay $83 for three months worth of Seasonale, compared to about $30 for a three-month supply of birth control pills such as Nordette, Dewsnup said.
Nurse practitioner Colleen Jones agreed that taking birth control pills steadily, without the week of placebo pills in conventional birth control regimens, helps Seasonale to be effective.
“Unintended pregnancies related to missed periods are more likely to occur in the couple days on either side of the week without hormones,” Jones said. When taken correctly, birth control pills are more than 99 percent effective, she said.
The risks of using Seasonale are similar to the risks of other conventional oral contraceptives, including increased risk of heart attack, blood clots and stroke, according to the FDA.
Because Seasonale users have fewer periods, the product’s label advises women to consider whether they could be pregnant if they miss one of their
quarterly periods.
In addition, it takes time for a person’s body to adjust to not having a menstrual cycle as often, potentially leading to bleeding between periods for Seasonale users, Dewsnup said.
Jones said there is no health risk associated with reduced menstrual cycles. She said research has shown that extended use of birth control pills can decrease a woman’s risk for several types of cancer. But which method of birth control is best ultimately depends on the person, she said.
“Everyone’s body is different,” Jones said. “If women are conscientious, they can figure out a system that works for them.”

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