Pill
What is the contraceptive pill?
The contraceptive pill is a little pill that girls usually take once a day to inhibit ovulation and fertilization. It is a hormonal contraceptive method developed by Gregory Goodwin Pincus, John Rock and Min Chueh Chang. It was discovered in 1955 and first used as a contrceptive method in 1960 in the United States, permitting women to chose for the first time when they want to have a baby. It contains normally a combination of two hormones: estrogen and progestin. The pill contains a low dose of hormone, thus it is only active for 24 hours and has to be taken once a day.
What is a hormone?
A hormone is a protein and a transporter of a chemical message produced by a gland or a tissue. This message transmits a signal by the blood from one or a group of cells to another one. It acts on organs or other tissues situated away from it. Hormones, with the nervous system, organize the activity of the billions of cells in the human body. Some exemples of hormones: FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone), LH (luteinizing hormone) and GnRH (gonadotropin-releasing hormone) are the three major hormones implicated in the generation of oocytes and sperm cells (= gametogenesis). The release of GnRH by the hypothalamus induces the release of FSH and LH.
What are the two hormones that the pill contains and what is their role?
The pill is principally an association of two synthetic hormones: estrogen and progestin (=synthetic progesterone-like hormone).
Estrogen is present in both women's and men's body, but at a higher level in women's body of reproductive age.
It is a group of steroid compounds and the principal female sex hormone. There are three major naturally occurring types of estrogen, which are estradiol, estriol and estrone. Estrogens promote the development of female secondary sex characteristics, such as breasts, and are also involved in the regulation of the menstrual cycle. In males estrogen regulates the reproductive system important to the maturation of sperm.
- See Annex Pill 1
Do girls all take the same pill and why?
No, not all girls can stand hormones contained in the normal pill, most of the time, it's estrogen that girls can't bear.
What are the kind of secondary effects?
First we have to know that about 60% of women report no side effects at all, and the majority of those who do have only minor effects. It shows that the women's body, thanks to the technology's evolution, accepts more and more the pill. But if there are side effects they can act physically on girls but also psychologically.
Girls can have physical side effects as:
Weight Gain: The weight gain induced by the pill consumption is the principal cause for girls to stop to take it. In fact 25% of girls between 15 and 19 years old would stop to take the pill because of weight gain and acne.
In our appearance based society, girls' physical aspect is crucial, that's why they stop to take it not to gain weight. By deduction we can say that in our society girls are more focused on their physical aspect than on the fact that they could become pregnant.
Sexuality: Even if the pill is a good way to have sexual relations without becoming pregnant, without being stressed and have sex in a more spontaneous and natural way, they could be also negative effects on sexuality for example: the decrease of frequency of sexual thoughts or the decrease of lubrification which can make sex painful.
This negative effects continue for up to four months after a woman stops taking the pill. It shows that the organism can't be as before in only one day, it needs a adaptation time.
Other side effects: there could be also other physical side effects as vaginal discharge,changes in menstrual flow,nausea and vomiting, headaches, changes in the breasts, changes in blood pressure and skin problems.
Girls can have psychological side effects as:
Depression:Current medical reference textbooks on contraception agree that a low-dose oral contraceptives doesn't increase the risk of depression of a woman, and doesn't worsen the depression of those who are still depressed.
However, a recent study found that women taking the contraceptive pill have two times more chance to be depressed than those who don't take the pill. The average depression rating scale score was 17.6 for women taking the pill compared with 9.8 for those who don't take it. These women in the survey were adult (over 18), weren't pregnant or lactating,they weren't depressed and didn't use anti- depressant medication since 1 years.
So we can see that there is sometimes a relationship between the woman's depression and the fact that she's taking the pill.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_oral_contraceptive_pill#Side-effects
What is the minipill?
It is a contraceptive pill to be taken orally and containing most of the time progestin (=progestogen), but no estrogen: a Progestin Only Pill (POP).
It is taken to interrupt the ovulation and prevent a pregnancy. It is called a "mini" pill because it contains a smaller quantity of hormone than the normal pill does. Besides the hormones contained in the minipill are not the same as those that the normal pill contains. These are the reasons why some girls can bear the minipill but not the normal one: with the minipill, they don't suffer from the bad side effects of the pill. Even though the minipill contains a smaller quantity of hormone, it remains as efficient as the normal pill to fill its aim, and it also has to be taken daily. The small quantity of progestogen, and absence of oestrogen, make the minipill safe to use during breastfeeding and actually, it may even increase the flow of milk. The minipills, lacking estrogen for most, aren't involved in increasing risks of DVT (Deep-Vein Thrombosis) and heart disease, as the normal pill does.
In what period of life do girls take the pill and for how long?
The pill is among other things taken in a birth control device; girls take it to be able to have sex without any pregnancy risk. Girls often take the pill during their adolescent period but there are also women (adult females) who take it because they don't want to have any baby when they have sexual relations. Girls and women take generally the pill until they want to have a baby, often for years.
Why do girls take the pill?
Girls take the pill principally because they don't want to get pregnant at a particular moment of their life but there are also other reasons:
- Regulating the menstrual cycle: Some girls have ovaries that don't ovulate regularly. Some problems can occur such as irregular periods or heavy bleeding during the periods. In order to solve this problem girls take the pill which helps to regulate their menstrual cycle, so their periods come every month.
- Less bleeding during the menstrual cycle: During the ovulation girls' uterus grows a lining and if they aren't pregnant their body get rid of the lining every month.The shedding of the lining causes the period. But when girls take the pill it decreases the amount of lining that grows in the uterus and if their is less lining to get ride each month, they bleed less. The period last about 2 or 3 days. It's practical for girls who have heavy and long bleedings but it's also useful for women who have anemia. Anemia is a condition that people develop because they don't have enough iron in their blood.Thanks to the pill, girls bleed less,they lose less iron and so they stop to develop anemia.
- Treating acne: Some pills are used in the treatment of acne. It's really efficient and girls sometimes take the pill only for this ( the appearence).
- Less pain and cramping during the menstrual cycle: Sometimes girls who have painful period want to take the pill only to reduce the pain.
- Preventing ovarian cysts: During the normal process of ovulation, ovarian cysts are sometimes developed but the pill prevents the ovulation and so prevents cysts.
- Increasing breasts: Maybe you're going to be surprise but a lot of girls, during adolescence, only take the pill to increase their breasts. It's only a question of appearance, because in our society, the image of the perfect girl given by the medias is a young female with big breasts and big buttocks; girls take it as a model and try to look as this image to feel better.
Is the pill efficient?
The pill is the most used contraceptive method in Switzerland. It is taken by 66% of women between 15 and 34 of age, and by 24% of women between 35 and 49 of age. The so-called "third generation" pill can be taken until menopause. The pill' success rate is of 97%, but it must not be forgotten that it's only a contraceptive means, thus it doesn't protect against transmitting Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs). The real efficacy of pill depends on user compliance to take it correctly.
How does the pill act on female organism?
On the figure "The female Reproduction Cycle": at the top the hypothalamus, the control center of hormones situates near the brain, and secretes hormones. One of them is Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), and it will stimulate a gland, the anterior pituitary which is the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland, and increase the output of FSH and LH (two pituitary hormones)(1). When an ovarian follicle, its growth previously stimulated by FSH, (2) is mature, it secretes more and more estrogen. It creates a peak of estrogen (3) which causes an increase of FSH and LH (4). This FSH and LH surge provokes the ovulation (5).If there is any peak in the level of estrogen there is a surge of FSH and LH and then ovulation. So in few words it's just a question of quantity (of estrogen).
- See Annex Pill 2
Are there pills for men?
Nowadays, scientists are elaborating the contraceptive pill for men. This pill will inhibit spermatogenesis. For more information click the following link.
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pill
Essential Biology
http://www.iemily.com/article-177.html#use
http://www.alphanet.ch/~scream/absolut/fonctionnement.html
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