By Fr Joshan Rodrigues –
Most people have heard about ‘Birth control pills’ or the ‘Morning-after pill’ or ‘oral contraceptives’, but not many know how they really work and what are the consequences of taking these pills. Though the pill can have serious moral and health consequences, we seldom talk about it. I’ve recently had the opportunity to dvelve into this topic and here I share with you – in summary – the main concepts and issues that should be out there as public knowledge, but most often are ignored.
What is the ‘Pill’ and how does it work
“The Pill” is the popular term for more than 40 different commercially available oral contraceptives. It is estimated that around 60 million women across the globe use the pill annually.
Though all these pills go by the name of ‘contraceptives’, not all of them strictly act in this way. There are three ways in which birth control pills work:
- preventing ovulation (the primary mechanism in which the egg itself is not released by the woman’s reproductive system),
- thickening the cervical mucus, thereby making it more difficult for the sperm to travel to the egg,
- thinning of the uterus lining/wall (endometrium), so that the newly fertilized egg is unable to attach itself (implant) in the uterus. The embryo finds a very thin uterine wall to which it cannot attach itself (a “hostile” uterus) and hence is flushed out during the woman’s menstrual cycle.
The first two ways are contraceptive; the third is abortive. So contraceptives are different from abortifacients, though many women use these pills without knowing the difference. Moreover, most of these pills are marketed under the general category of ‘contraceptives’.
Contraception or Abortion?
The pill contains a combination of estrogen and progestin. Estrogenprevents ovulation from taking place. Progestin imitates the progesterone hormone, attaches itself to the woman’s progesterone receptors and annuls it. So the woman’s body does not prepare the uterine walls to receive the fertilised egg. The contraceptive pill should mainly work, in the strict sense of the term, by preventing conception, that is by the ‘estrogen’ mechanism. But is that really how it happens?
The standard amount of estrogen in the birth control pills of the 1960s and 70s was 150 micrograms. Slowly but steadily, the amount of estrogen was reduced to less than 50 micrograms, because high-dose estrogen formulations have a greater incidence of adverse side effects like blurred vision, nausea, cramping, irregular menstrual bleeding, headaches, increased incidence of breast cancer, strokes and heart attacks, some of which led to fatalities. In 1988, the pill contained only 20-35 micrograms of estrogen. Modern day pills contain even less. The low amount of estrogen however, is usually ineffective in preventing ovulation and therefore the pill acts more as an abortifacient using the progestrone mechanism (the 3rd way mentioned above).
How does this work?
As a woman’s menstrual cycle progresses, her endometrium gradually gets richer and thicker in preparation for the arrival and implantation of any newly conceived child. The endometrium experiences an increase of blood vessels, which bring oxygen and nutrients to the child. There is also an increase in glycogen, a sugar that serves as a food source for the blastocyst (child) as soon as she/he implants. The pill prevents the endometrium from doing both these things. The child dies because of lack of oxygen and nutrition and is flushed out of the womb during the menstrual discharge. When the miscarriage is a result of a foreign device or chemical, it is in fact an abortion. This is true even if the mother does not intend it and does not know it is happening.
Studies show that in women who are on the pill, about 1 embryo is lost a year. Considering that 60 million women use the pill every year, this could represent tens of thousands of unborn children lost to this form of chemical abortion annually.
Health effects of being on ‘The Pill’
The costs of taking the pill are increasingly becoming clear today by scientific and medical research. Studies have confirmed the link between oral contraceptives and cervical cancer. Dr Jane Green, of Oxford University, one of the authors of the new cervical cancer study, implies in a media report where she explains that the increased risk of cervical cancer is “less than one extra case per 1000 women by the age of 50 for 10 years’ use of the pill”. Even so, that is 100,000-odd women a year globally. Risk increases with age and the length of time for which the woman is on the pill.
Cervical cancer is only one of the risks elevated by the pill; breast cancer and liver cancer are implicated and there is a well established link with blood clots and high blood pressure in some women. A large Danish study has found that hormonal contraception increases the risk of breast cancer by an overall 20 percent. The pill is an unnecessary pollutant, too, filling women’s bodies with excess hormones to prevent the natural consequences of sexual intercourse. In many ways it is a lifestyle drug, like tobacco. It cures nothing.
Canadian researchers who reviewed 37 case studies have confirmed a long-noted link between abortions and premature births as well as low birth weight babies. Women who had undergone more than one abortion had a 72 per cent increased risk of having low birth weight children and a 93 per cent increased risk of having a premature baby. So, if the pill is acting as an abortive agent, the same effects are implied.
The British Pregnant Advisory Service issued a report in which another glaring fact jumped to the eye: contraceptives do not always work, indeed, they fail quite often. In Australia, 60% of women who had unplanned pregnancies were using the contraceptive pill or condom. In Italy, studies show that in areas where contraceptive use is highest, the no. of abortions is also the highest. This indicates that contraceptives are not very reliable. The report distinguishes between two groups of contraceptive methods, the safest ones (such as hormonal treatments or implants) and the ordinary ones (condom or contraceptive ring). In 2016, the women who went to BPAS to terminate their pregnancy were 60,592. More than half of these (51.2%) used at least one contraceptive method of the two groups described. According to the BPAS study, “no contraceptive method is 100% effective, yet public discourse and some birth control initiatives increasingly frequently imply that abortion can always be avoided through contraceptive methods.”
There are also other side-effects, from weight gain and irritability to loss of libido and a diminished sense of wellbeing. The pill also normally causes symptoms such as abdominal pains and cramps, nausea, haemorrhages, headaches and vomiting. The abortion pill (Mifepristone or RU-486 as it is commonly known) has also caused a few but not less significant number of deaths among women around the world.
So what is the solution?
The one the Church has always proposed – Natural Family Planning, which depends on the woman being aware of her fertility cycles. The male, technological approach that dominates the field of so-called family planning is based on a distrust of women and a desire to control their collective fertility for other ends, including making lots of money from selling them contraceptives. But more and more young women are now seeing the harmful effects of chemicals being pushed into their bodies.
Natural Family Planning is on the rise in the US and in the West. It is not an unreliable method as many people think. In fact it encompasses a range of highly researched methods, many with their own apps and devices which are making them increasingly user friendly. It is interesting to note that Vogue magazine, an icon of fashion since 1892, seems to have picked up on the trend with an article in its November 2017 edition entitled “Why Millennial Women Are Rejecting The Pill”.
The article goes on to cite studies linking the pill and depression and doctors that have an attitude of contraception ‘at all costs’, despite the side effects patients cite:
“The reality of modern medicine is that pharmaceutical companies have to have an economic incentive to research new products,” says Dr Jane Dickson, vice-president of the faculty of sexual and reproductive healthcare at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. “Bio-identical hormones are far, far more expensive than synthetic versions and, unlike during the menopause, when only a small amount is needed to replace the body’s natural levels, contraception requires much higher doses to effectively put the reproductive organs to sleep.”
Natural family planning has increased in popularity in part also because it is so helpful to women wanting to get pregnant because they can know with great accuracy when they are most fertile.
………..the conversation will continue.
A woman’s body must be kept safe and protected at all costs.
Fr Joshan Rodrigues is the Managing Editor of The Examiner, Catholic Newsweekly of the Archdiocese of Bombay. He is an alumnus of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome in Institutional and Social Communications. He has done brief stints with the DeSales Media Group in Brooklyn, New York and Communications Office of the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales, London. He frequently blogs on faith and culture on his wonderful blog: Musings in Catholic Land.
Very informative