When hormonal contraceptive pills were first introduced to the public in 1960, they were initially packaged in a bottle, like other drugs. A few years later, Ortho-Novum was the first to create the circular dispenser that so many of us are familiar with: 21 days on, seven days off. This dispenser gave a sense of temporality to periods, as they occurred in a regular fashion every few weeks. The “off” week was designed by pharmaceutical companies to create a menstrual period because they felt patients, pharmaceutical executives, and religious officials would find hormonal contraception more acceptable this way. Experiencing somewhat regular menstruation is also a major way people know they are not pregnant. Though menstruating people have for decades been hacking their own contraception to avoid periods around certain life events, such as vacations or athletic competitions, it wasn’t until the turn of the 21st century that pharmaceutical companies began to sell hormonal contraceptive pills that explicitly skipped placebo weeks in order to decrease the frequency of menstruation.
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