The Female Contraceptive Pill
History, Feminism & Sex Education
How it Works and how it could be Better

The birth control pill has had many benefits for women, such as sexual liberation. It is a simple, cheap, reliable and convenient method of contraception.

As we are an evolutionary health website, lets consider a woman's natural cycle. In our modern society, a 'normal' menstrual cycle is thought to be 28 days.

In our evolutionary past, women did not have so many periods. Our natural cycle consisted of menstruation, pregnancy then breast feeding (which suppresses ovulation). This menstrual cycle is closer to 3 years, rather than once a month. Studies show that there is a relationship between a higher number of menstrual cycles and an increased risk of breast cancer (which makes evolutionary sense).

'100 years ago, the average woman had fewer than 150 periods during her life. Now, the modern woman could have 450 lifetime periods and can spend half of her life with monthly periods.' (www.noperiod.com)

A new 365 day contraceptive pill, Lybrel has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, May 2007. It effectively stops women from having periods. While drug companies that use aggressive marketing to stop menstruation for convenience sake is frightening, the controversial 'continuous' pill is interesting from an evolutionary perspective.

We need to find better hormone strategies for women's birth control pills that mimic more closely the natural cycle of a women of being pregnant and then breast feeding (to minimise number and severity of menstrual cycles). Whether this is possible or not is unknown, but it should certainly be explored.

Karene Jade Howie

Archival Videos: The Birth Control Pill

Wonderful video footage from CBC's archives on the birth control pill. Interview with co-developer Dr John Rock, Praising the Pill, Changing Sexual Attitudes, The Early Pioneers, Religious Debates, Legalising Contraceptives, The Pill turns 25, 40 years on.

Archival Birth Control Pill Videos
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-69-572/life_society/pill/

History of the Pill: Movie, Activists, Social Change

This website is based upon a film, The Pill directed by Chana Gazit, which reveals how the female contraceptive pill unleashed a social revolution. It includes a virtual explanation of taking the Pill, to see its effect women's bodies (using Flash), interesting interviews with women and a viewers' forum - where you can share your thoughts about birth control.

From the website: 'In May 1960, the FDA approved the sale of a pill that arguably would have a greater impact on American culture than any other drug in the nation's history. For women across the country, the contraceptive pill was liberating: it allowed them to pursue careers, fuelled the feminist and pro-choice movements and encouraged more open attitudes towards sex.

Among the key players in the development of the drug were two elderly female activists (Margaret Sanger and Katharine McCormick) who demanded a contraceptive women could eat like aspirin and then paid for the scientific research; a devout Catholic gynaecologist (John Rock),who believed a robust sex life made for a good marriage and argued tirelessly that the Pill was a natural form of birth control; and a brilliant biologist (Gregory Pincus) who bullied a pharmaceutical company into risking a possibly crippling boycott to develop this revolutionary contraceptive.'

History of the Pill: Movie, Activists, Social Change
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/

Lybrel - 365 day Oral Contraceptive, No Periods

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Lybrel on May 22, 2007, a new continuous-use birth control pill designed to eliminate menstrual periods for as long as a woman takes it. It contains low doses of a synthetic progesterone (levonorgestrel) and estrogen (ethinyl estradiol).

Lybrel is the first approved combination oral contraceptive taken 365 days a year without a placebo phase or pill-free interval.

Lybrel - 365 day Oral Contraceptive, No Periods
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/lybrel/DI00086

Pill That Eliminates the Period Gets Mixed Reviews

From the website: 'Doctors say they know of no medical reason women taking birth control pills need to have a period. The monthly bleeding that women on pills experience is not a real period, in fact.

Since the advent of oral contraceptives in 1960, birth control pills typically have been designed to mimic the natural 28-day menstrual cycle to assure women using the pill that their bodies were functioning normally. The pills are usually packaged as regimens of 21 days of hormone pills and 7 inactive pills. The interruption of hormone therapy during the inactive part of the regimen induces bleeding that resembles a mild period but is, in fact, caused by unstable hormone levels.'

Pill That Eliminates the Period Gets Mixed Reviews
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/20/health/20period.html

Birth Control Pill Use Linked to Cervical Cancer

From the website: 'Birth control pills increase the chance that a woman will develop cervical cancer and other cancers of the womb, according to new research. The study, which was published in the medical journal The Lancet, 2007, found that taking birth control pills for five years doubles the chance that a woman will get cervical cancer.

The Lancet study was conducted by a group of international researchers who analyzed data from 24 birth control pill studies that covered more than 50,000 women. In industrialized countries the overall rate of cervical cancer among women who have never taken the pill is 3.8 cases per 1,000 women. The rate rises to 4.0 per 1,000 in women who took the pill for five years and 4.5 for those who took it for 10 years.

The researchers are not sure why birth control pills increase a woman’s risk of developing cervical cancer. The disease’s primary cause is the human papillomavirus, not the hormones found in birth control pills. The Pill may make cervical cells more susceptible to infection by the human papillomavirus, or the hormones contained in birth control pills could be accelerating the cancer’s progression once an infection occurs.'

Birth Control Pill Use Linked to Cervical Cancer
http://www.newsinferno.com/archives/2014

This Page Title: 'Women's Sexual Health: The Female Contraceptive Pill. Feminism & Sex Education, Ovulation, Hormones, Menstruation, Teenagers'.
The main sexuality pages on the evolution of our diverse sexual behaviors have good content and are well worth browsing (see links at top of page). And the list of related sexuality terms that people actually search is informative (to say the least!).
Want to be Involved? Join us in this research, which provides an excellent opportunity to present to the world the latest knowledge about the thing we all find most interesting - sex! The work will not just benefit humanity, it will profoundly enhance your own sexuality as you learn more about our complex and diverse sexual evolution.
We seek help in finding the latest scientific (evolutionary) research on our biological and cultural sexual evolution and distributing content (overviews / summaries) to relevant pages.
This site is well respected. We are listed as the Top Philosophy Website on the Internet with around 500,000 page views each week. So your contributions will be seen and read, and will be providing humanity with a great source of wisdom about a very important subject (that currently suffers due to cultural / religious myths).

If you would like to be involved (or have comments about this website) please write to us using the form lower on this page. Many thanks! Karene

Analyse any human emotion, no matter how far it may be removed from the sphere of sex, and you are sure to discover somewhere the primal impulse, to which life owes its perpetuation. ... The primitive stages can always be re-established; the primitive mind is, in the fullest meaning of the word, imperishable. ... Mans most disagreeable habits and idiosyncrasies, his deceit, his cowardice, his lack of reverence, are engendered by his incomplete adjustment to a complicated civilisation. It is the result of the conflict between our instincts and our culture. (Sigmund Freud)

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Related Search Terms & Number of Searches
Women, Sexual, Health, The Pill, Female, Contraceptive, Feminism, Education, Hormones, Menstruation