« Nature does nothing in vain » Aristotel
Some historical dates
Described as the most significant medical advance of the 20th century, the first birth control pill was elaborated in United States in 1956 by doctor Gregory Pincus in collaboration with two women; one who financed his researches and the other one a nurse from New York, founder of the Family Planning.
Most of clinical trials were conducted in Porto Rico, where there were no anti-birth control laws.The results proved its efficiency but serious side effects were ignored.
The pill was sold firstly in Germany, in 1956, even before it was approved by the Food and Drugs Agency in United States (1960).The french market adopts it starting from 1967.
Starting from 1970, voices rise and expose the side effects of the pill: heart attack, stroke, depression, weight gain, blood clots, all linked to hormone levels in the pill.
Over the time, different versions of the birth control were released on the market, the difference lying in the hormone dose or the choice of hormones (type of estrogen and of progestin).
Today, the pill is not just a contraceptive anymore, but recommended by doctors as treatment for acne, among others.Pharmaceutical industry came up with studies showing the health benefits of newer pills, decreased risk of ovarian cancer, iron deficiency anemia?! In France we are talking about the natural pill (but nature doesn’t have anything to do with it).
How the pill works?
1° The two synthetic hormones- estrogen and progestin- will prevent ovulation from taking place.In other words, during the hormonal contraception ovaries take a break, not secreting any longer the hormones.(break that can take years or dozens of years) Result : this artificial intervention will create chaos with the endocrine system.
2° The main composant in the pill -the ethanol-oestradiol is administrated to doses 20 to 50 times higher that cells made by ovaries, and the progestin to doses 10 to 100 higher than the normal rate.
The pernicious effects of the hormonal contraception
Marie Catammara, naturopath and teacher at ISUPNAT, gave a talk recently on fertility and mentioned OMS’s statistics ont the dangerous consequences of using hormonal contraception:
- Drop in fertility
- Endocrine disruption
- Break down of the immune system
- Return of the sexually transmitted diseases
- Disorders of the menstrual cycle
- Increase of the breast, ovarian and uterus cancer
There are other factors like an unhealthy life style (alcool, smoking, sedentarity) that added to a hormonal contraception can escalate these effects.
Luckily today there is a large number of choices in terms of contraception, which are less dangerous on short and long term health, but that wasn’t my topic of this article.
An article on fertility and how to improve it soon !
