Customer Reviews

No More Periods?: The Risks of Menstrual Suppression and Other Cutting-Edge Issues About Hormones and Women's Health

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If you are interested in one woman's personal opinion, feel free to read this book. But if you are looking for actual medical facts regarding a woman's health, supported by scientific studies; you won't find any here.
Dr. Rako makes a lot of claims in this book, but doesn't have anything to back up those claims. Her reasoning seems to be, "periods are NATURAL and a part of woman's FEMINITY, so choosing not to have them is BAD."
At least she admits in the first chapter that many well-educated medical professionals DISAGREE with her personal opinion.

This book is a stunning example of the absolute and total mangling and distortion of science. It should be categorized under "faith" rather than gynecology or science.

The pharmaceutical industry is developing drugs to do away with the menstrual cycles of healthy women. The market for these drugs is 2.2 BILLION DOLLARS. My book, "No More Periods? The Risks of Menstrual Suppression ..." is thoroughly researched and annotated, with references given for every factual statement, and with a reference bibliography of 226 listings. I have included the URL for any website from which quotes have been used. Every statement made by the anonymous reviewer "from Chicago," including the spelling of my name, is in error. I am alarmed that AOL or any other media publication will print an anonymous "review." The book is a carefully balanced evaluation of the pros and cons of menstrual suppression, including a full discussion of those women for whom the birth control pill is a reasonable choice. Unfortunately few doctors know the risks of menstrual suppression, which include cancer of the cervix, heart attacks, strokes, reduced sexual interest and pleasure, and depression. Women -- read, learn, and decide for yourselves.

This book is a waste of money. The author tries to scare the readers instead of inform them. Her patronizing judgements make me sorry I spent good money on this garbage. It is extremely biased, and she presents erronious conclusions to scientific articles. For example, p. 107 she writes "Research shows that the increased appetite that troubles women using the shot may be due to a direct effect on the brain, where a particular set of neurons tends to accumulate concentrations of the drug." The actual science was conducted in male monkeys, and the research had nothing to do with feeding or body weight. The author presents any positive benefit of the pill as a negative. It is accepted and well-known that hormonal contraception has some down-sides. But the author can't even stay focused on menstruating women. In chapter 4 she devotes 2 pages to a poem then spends the rest of it on research in postmenopausal women. I think this author would be happier seeing all women barefoot and pregnant. The last chapter (8 pages) is evangelical in the promotion of menstruation as sexy! If you want to be judged negatively and patronized for wanting choices from science and biology, this book is for you.

I would have to disagree with the other reviewer. This book was a WEALTH of information! More and more doctors are touting the use of birth control pills and the cessation of our periods as an answer to many of our gynecological ills. After reading Susan's book--as well as doing my own independent research-- I would have to agree with many of her facts. These are not just one woman's opinions, they are indeed FACTS, that are SUPPORTED--if you care to learn the truth for yourself. I think that this book is a treasure for any woman who wants to take control of her health--and doesn't mistakenly believe that her doctor 'knows all'. A definite read. Enlightening!

As a medical professional with Masters Degrees in Public Health and Education from Harvard University, where I too have spent countless hours researching the stacks of Harvard's Countway Library, I am impressed with the thoroughness of Dr. Rako's responsible research. Finally a medical professional, unbiased by pharmaceutical conflicts of interest and unafraid to speak truths many would rather not to have to face, has done the work of laying out, in language we can all understand, that wholesale manipulation of women's normal menstrual cycle has costs to our bodies that the drug companies do not want us to know about -- and that too few of our own doctors know. How many of us know that "the shot" can cause osteoporosis even in young women -- and that the birth control pill is now known to contribute actively to cancer of the cervix? 6,000 American women -- many of them young women with young children -- will die this year of this cancer. In addition to the important well-documented health hazards of the pill, Rako draws attention to the fact that manipulating the menstrual cycle dislocates women from our fundamental nature. Finally, as a medical professional who was trained in graduate school to critique others' medical research, I want to stress that this book is a balanced analysis of the pros and cons of doing away with women's periods. Dr. Rako has laid out the factors that will help each woman to make her own risk/benefit analysis, and will help those women for whom non-stop use of the birth control pill makes sense to choose this option. Thank you, Dr. Rako, for being a voice of sanity in a world focused on "convenience" at a cost we may know only when it is too late.

This book makes me angry, because so far as I know, it's the only major source of information about the possible risks of menstrual suppression. All the other books and websites and stuff I've seen about it say that there is no risk and no problems, which I find highly dubious.

So this book discusses in depth the possible risks of the hormonal meddling that menstrual suppression requires. It also questions the medical background of some of the doctors who have advocated it, documenting the dubious activities they've engaged in. This is valuable information.

The problem is that the author makes herself untrustworthy by talking about how much she loooooves menstruating. She insists that she always felt sexy and powerful and happy while she was menstruating. All the women I know - ALL the women I know - feel miserable, ugly, tired, and in pain when they're having their periods.

She also claims that before she became a doctor, she only knew one woman in her entire life who had cramps, and she characterizes this as a "rare" condition. If by "rare", she means "experienced by 95% of the women who menstruate", then I guess it is rare. Now, I know women whose periods aren't as bad as mine, but I do not know ANY woman who does not hate it or who does not have all kinds of unpleasant side effects.

Because of the ridiculous lies she tells about how wonderful menstruation is - and I'm menstruating right now, let me tell you there is nothing frelling wonderful about it - I have to wonder how much I can trust the rest of the information in her book.

I've been on and off birth control for years. I stopped using it a few months ago because I was on so many meds at the time that I felt all the side effects would be overwhelming. Then I got to thinking...what ARE the side effects??? This is a really informative book, although I don't like the way it's written. It will scare the crap out of you to not use birth control, and for good reason. I'm not sure what the big deal is with most women (unless you have severe menstrual pains, etc), tell your husbands/boyfriends to use a condum and for menstrual pain, take some advil!

The thoughts and ideas shared in this book present a tremendous case against period suppression - it is terrifying that pharmaceutical companies would actually presume to think that periods are something to just "do away with". Hasn't nature created this process for a reason? What effects will not having a normal menstruation have on the female body? Wonderfully presented in this clear & easy to understand book.

Dr. Rako, yours truly is a voice of reason...

After a severe, near-fatal reaction to "natural" progesterone (which seems, unfortunately, to be all the rage these days), I ran across Dr. Rako's wonderful book in my stack of hormone research. It was a delightful read and full of fascinating, pertinent information. Written in a open, likeable, conversational style, this book was also packed with eye-opening medical facts. I must disagree with the other reviewer on this site who had such a negative reaction to Dr. Rako's findings. Yes, Dr. Rako urges readers to become informed about what the Pill and other contraceptives like Depo-Provera can do to a delicate hormonal system - and for good reason! Unfortunately, I speak from bitter experience. How I wish I had encountered Dr. Rako's book long before I ever took the Pill for the first time, and even more, before I tried the Depo-Provera-esque natural progesterone! Talk about ruining your health and your life... Please, even if you don't agree with everything you read, at least take the time to inform yourself of the dangers of meddling with hormones before you trot down that road like a lamb to the slaughter.