Some religious rites of Hajj (the obligatory pilgrimage that many Muslims make to Mecca) cannot be performed during menstruation, so women may wish to suppress their menses. Eliminating monthly periods could further improve the quality of women's lives, reducing both physical pain and mood swings that can be disruptive or debilitating, to say nothing of the inconvenience and cost of managing monthly bleeds.1

Technology to make menstruation an event of choice for many women has existed for decades and includes combined oral contraceptive pills (COCs), skipping the placebo tablets in 28-pill packs1 and, more recently, as reported in the April 2012 issue of this Journal, a flexible, extended regimen of ethinylestradiol and drospirenone.2 Other methods include taking norethisterone (Primolut N^®), medroxyprogesterone acetate (Depo-Provera^®), danazol, …