A closed circle of life
The American Food and Drug Administration approved a pill that minnows may find worrisome.
On Tuesday, the FDA passed a drug called Lybrel, which stops a woman from menstruating. The Washington Post reported that it is designed “for women who find their periods too painful, unpleasant or inconvenient and want to be free of them.” While the FDA said the risks of this pill are the same as any contraceptive, an endocrinology researcher at UBC said the menstrual cycle is not understood well enough and the consequences of suppressing it are unknown. Others feel this pill reinforces negative attitudes and taboos surrounding menstruation.
Also on Tuesday, a team of Canadian and American researchers revealed that spiking a Northwestern Ontario lake with synthetic estrogen really messed up the minnows. The male fish started developing eggs instead of sperm. The level of estrogen was the same as that found in water discharged from sewage treatment plants in Canada and other countries.
While I don’t know how the dosage of estrogen in the menstruation-suppressing pill compares with current contraceptives, aquatic life near sewage treatment plants should probably start lobbying for better filtration.