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A Bitter Pill to Swallow The Oral Contraceptives Betrayal Pill Swallow Bitter The Oral Contraceptives Betrayal The Pill has exacted a high price from women due to its serious and even life-threatening side effects. Has it all been worth the trouble? Part 2 prophetic warning was issued about the Pill by Sir Charles Dodd, President of the Royal College of Physicians, in 1961: "The women who have continuous treatment with the contraceptive Pill have an entirely different hormonal back- ground due to pituitary inhibition. One cannot help but wonder what will hap- pen if this state of affairs is allowed to continue."* Sir Charles should know, since he and his colleagues discovered the first non-steroid oestrogen compound, known as diethystilboestrol (DES), in 1938. While a synthetic compound, it locked into the oestrogen receptors so exactly that the cell was fooled into thinking that the body's own oestrogens were stimulating activity. At the time, Sir Charles gave stern warnings of stilboestrol's power and cautioned against its use, predict- ing serious effects that in the years ahead were to be realised. And so the age of synthetic hormones began. Synthetic progesterone, known as progestin, was first made by Allen and Ehrenstein in 1944 using a lengthy and complicated method. In the 1950s the German firm Schering and the American firm Syntex were the first companies to produce these orally active hor- mones commercially. When taken orally, these steroid hormone drugs are between 500 and 1,000 times more powerful than the natural progesterone produced by the body.* Animals reacted in a wide variety of ways when given the new hormone preparations. There were changes to their carbohydrate, fat and protein metabolism and alterations in their salt and water balance, demonstrating the overlap of adrenal steroid hormone action. Animals given these progestins in pregnancy sometimes produced offspring with abnor- malities. Hormones are more likely to induce congenital abnormalities or cancer when there are nutritional deficiencies. Even when laboratory animals were given a diet with added essential nutrients, the hormones still caused significant deficiencies. In spite of animal studies, the decision was taken to go ahead with clinical trials of the Pill. Since it was common knowledge at that time that oestrogens could cause breast can- cer, the original Pill trials in America used progestins. However, when progestin-only pills were taken, women complained of too much bleeding. It was then realised that to imitate the regular normal monthly period, an oestrogen needed to be added. Dr John Rock and Dr Gregory Pincus tried out the first "Pincus Pill" in the 1950s on a Harvard volunteer group and on some chronically ill mental patients. Both men and women took a high-dose form of Envoid (10 mg), which was more than enough to stop ovulation in women and sperm production in men. One of the men displayed shrunken testicles; consequently, all further trials with the "male pill" were unceremoniously aban- doned. It was unanimously agreed upon by the researchers that any "male pill" would have to be really safe before experiments could proceed—but no such caveat was ever given to safeguard the health of women. However, the stage was now set to embark upon the largest experiment ever conducted on an unsuspecting female population—an experiment which continues to this day. The combined use of synthetic oestrogen and progestins was introduced first en masse as oral contraceptives for fertile women, and then later infiltrated the lives of menopausal and postmenopausal women. For some women, their childbearing years all the way through to their post-menopausal years have been ruled entirely by these synthetic hormones. Sir Charles ventured into the world of hormones with great caution, warning that, "We should always be humbled when we think of what we do not know about the female reproductive cycle. We still have no understanding of the mechanism that makes one Graafian follicle in one of the ovaries of a normal woman maturate and ovulate each month. This is a baffling problem. Until we know the mechanism that selects one Has it all been worth the trouble? by Sherrill Sellman ©1997 Light Unlimited Productions Locked Bag 8000-MDC Kew, Victoria 3101, Australia Telephone: +61 (0)3 9249 9591 Fax: +61(0)3 9855 9991 E-mail: golight@netspace.net.au Light Unlimited Productions Locked Bag 8000-MDC Kew, Victoria 3101, Australia Telephone: +61 (0)3 9249 9591 Fax: +61(0)3 9855 9991 E-mail: golight@netspace.net.au NEXUS - 21 by Sherrill Sellman ©1997 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1997