That's because lactation is probably the only bodily function for which modern medicine has almost no training, protocol or knowledge.

CNN: Is the medical community failing breast-feeding moms?

As Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, notes, the broader question raised by Seasonale is whether suppressing menstruation is merely a lifestyle choice or, rather, whether it is more like turning a normal bodily function into a medical complaint.

ECONOMIST: Controlling menstruation

But research in recent years has shown an increasingly complex picture in which the bugs play significant roles in several critical bodily systems, having already been implicated in obesity, asthma, and liver function.

BBC: Bacteria in mouse gut affect development and behaviour