Lybrel is a type of oral contraceptive (ie, "the pill") but it is designed to be taken 365 days a year. Most OCPs are dosed for 21 days with 7 days off, at which time a period occurs. Lybrel is taken daily and hence, no periods, although some women will have irregular spotting and breakthrough bleeding.
Yes. Before Lybrel, I was on Seasonale, which limits your periods to four a year. Lybrel is better. For one thing, I never have to worry that my period will coincide with travel or something like that. Back when I had periods and they were pretty intense, if they occurred during a vacation they more or less ruined at least a couple of days of it.
One caveat: If you want to avoid periods for a special event, start taking Lybrel or Seasonale or whatever for several months before the event to allow your body to adjust. I switched to Seasonale a few years ago, just a month or two before going to Italy. D'oh! I spent almost the entire time in Italy -- about 12 days -- with a period. A relatively light one, but still. My plan really backfired. (It didn't ruin the trip, though!
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Lybrel didn't take quite as long to adjust to, but that may be because I'd already been taking Seasonale for a couple of years.
From what I've read, the periods you get while on a regular b.c. pill aren't "real" periods. When the pill was first developed, the inventors thought that if women went off the pill for one week a month and experienced that artificial period, the pill would seem more "natural" and therefore better accepted by the Catholic Church. Of course, it wasn't anyway. But -- again, from what I've read -- there's no medical reason to have to have those fake periods.
Still, I'll admit I might be a little more nervous about it if I were younger and planned to have more children. The docs say it's OK, but ...