Natural Health and Herbal Remedies Blog

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY PLANNING: THE PILL

First and foremost is the contraceptive pill, which burst on a startled world in the late 1950s. This is the most striking advance ever made in this area, and never before in history have so many women taken regular medication for non-medical reasons.

Basically, the Pill consists of two naturally occurring female body hormones. One is called an oestrogen, and the other is called a progestogen, or simply gestogen for short. Both of these hormones are produced by the female ovary in a set pattern. Oestrogen is produced right throughout the menstrual cycle. Progestogen (or the natural hormone progesterone) is produced from the date of ovulation, usually fourteen days before the onset of the next menstrual period, until the period actually starts. If pregnancy does not occur, then production ceases until the same time the next month.

However, the combination of these two hormones in a certain ratio, and taken orally on a regular basis, usually twenty-one days per twenty-eight, prevents the female egg from being released at the time of normal ovulation. With no egg, it does not matter how many male sperms are present, conception simply cannot, and does not occur.

The normal way of taking the Pill is to start on the fifth day of the normal cycle. One per day is taken, and this is continued for twenty-one consecutive days. At the end of this time, a break of seven days occurs, during which time no Pill is taken. After seven days, a new packet is commenced, and one a day taken in a similar manner. This method is continued non-stop for as long as the woman wishes to remain infertile, and desires not to conceive.

Provided the Pill is taken strictly along these lines and there is no variation, it is virtually 100 per cent effective. In the rare instances where pregnancy has taken place, a check will often indicate that certain incidents occurred. For example, the woman may have been ill, had vomiting or diarrhoea, in which case the Pill may have been vomited, or passed through the bowel without being absorbed. Protection for that menstrual month then lapses if two consecutive pills (or even, at times only one) are missed.

Some women taking medication for other purposes may have the efficacy of the Pill reduced or totally destroyed by the action of the other medication working through the liver system. This is notoriously so when the anti-T.B. drug rifampicin is taken. But several others have also been incriminated. If any other medication is being prescribed, it is worth checking with your doctor to make sure that the two are compatible.

In Australia, the usual pill is the so-called “combination pill” which is the one described. Once it was popular to use so-called “sequential pills,” one hormone being taken, then the other being added for the final week. However, these fell into disfavor some time ago when it was claimed they may cause breast tumours in experimental animals, and they were subsequently removed from the medical market.

Another pill, often referred to as the “mini-pill,” is a gestogen-only preparation. It works slightly differently. Its method is claimed to alter the mucus at the uterine cervix and impede sperm penetration of the cervix and uterus, and so prevent pregnancy in this manner. However, several side-effects may occur, especially related to heavy or irregular bleeding, and it is usually reserved for women under certain circumstances who find the ordinary combination pill unsatisfactory. Medical guidance in this respect is advised.

The Pill has had a stormy history, and is not without its ups and downs. Nevertheless, it seems to suit the majority, and is undoubtedly the simplest reversible method of contraception available world-wide today. In Australia about 1,000,000 women and in New Zealand about 300,000 women regularly use the Pill. Worldwide the figure is in excess of sixty million.

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