The period: nature’s monthly checkup, the body’s way of telling what’s going on, our way of knowing that everything is in check.

So why would it seem feasible to offer the option of living life period-free? According to an April 20 New York Times article, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve a new method of oral contraceptive, called Lybrel, that does exactly this. Starting next month, women will have the choice of carrying on their lives without their once-monthly menstrual cycle.

The makers of Lybrel conducted research to determine if women would choose the period-free option. Two-thirds of the women polled said they would be interested in this option.

According to Linda Andrist, a professor at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions in Boston and researcher for Lybrel, “We don’t want to confront our bodily functions anymore . . . . We’re too busy,” as reported in the Times.

Too busy? I admit this one week out of the month is slightly inconvenient. And I understand that, at times, women purposely induce missed periods. Is this healthy? If you research it, you’ll find that doctors have not found any reason not to do it. They have also not researched long-term effects. But unless it’s your wedding day or the day of your Olympic swim meet, it’s probably better to go au natural and pop a couple Midol.

Above and beyond possible medical problems, skipping periods could create (think off-balance hormones) a greater problem that comes with period-suppression – pregnancy. Even if you are on a birth-control pill, there is still the possibility that you can get pregnant. Along with letting you know that your body is healthy, a monthly period lets you know that you’re not pregnant. If you could go years without one, how would you be able to detect a pregnancy until at least a couple of months in? Most signs of pregnancy, including morning sickness and swelling, do not occur until around month three or four.

The scary part is if a woman does not realize that she is pregnant until later months, she no longer has the choice to have an abortion. Whether her symptoms were mild, or she was undergoing other changes in her body at the same time or even if she did not put on any additional weight, the fact that she did not have her period in the first months is the reason she would not be able to choose abortion.

Just last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against partial-birth abortions, which are defined as abortions of a fetus in the third trimester, but often include the fifth and sixth months as well. A woman could possibly make it until month five or six without knowing that she is pregnant.

It’s strange that while the partial-birth abortion ban was in the court, researchers were speaking to college students and feminists about their science-given choice to live without their periods. Periods give information about the body. Is the feminist ideal to be uninformed? To be uninformed about one’s own body and then to blame the court when abortion bans are kept in place?

I’m starting to think that if these researchers weren’t looking for ways to encourage ignorance for convenience, maybe they wouldn’t be “too busy” to be women. Maybe they would be promoting education and sexual health. Sorry, ladies, but menstruation is the biggest part of that. Period.