With more than 50 women having flown in space over the last 50 years and the ranks of women astronauts growing, one might assume that a basic physiological question has been answered: What’s the best approach to manage menstrual cycles in space?

An analysis published Thursday in the journal “npj Microgravity” reports that many women astronauts might choose to pause their periods while in space, especially as missions get longer, and discusses ways to do that. Using long-acting contraceptive methods, like implants or intrauterine devices, may be best, the authors say — not only for the women but for reasons of convenience and cargo.

The authors, Dr. Varsha Jain at King’s College London, who has been described as a space gynecologist, and Virginia E. Wotring at Baylor College of Medicine, who might be considered a space pharmacologist, write that menstruating in space is safe. (The old myth that zero gravity would cause “retrograde” menstrual flow, causing blood to accumulate in the abdomen and cause infections, has been shown to be baseless.)

In a NASA oral history, Dr. Rhea Seddon, an astronaut who flew on three space shuttle missions in the 1980s and 1990s, said, “I’m not totally sure who had the first period in space, but they came back and said, ‘Period in space, just like period on the ground. Don’t worry about it.’”