A major achievement in the history of medical science was the introduction of Birth control pills. It was a bon for the women who faced problems during abortions. The women could effectively control child bearing by taking a pill. "The Pill" is the common name for oral contraception.
Women all over the world have been using birth control methods since ages. The methods used by them were not only ineffective but also dangerous. But with the development of Birth control Pill there is relief for women.
Margaret Sanger was the American birth control activist and founder of American Birth Control league. At first she faced a lot of oppositions but later won public support and the courts for women choice to decide when and how to bear children.
Sanger and her patron Katharine McCormick as it has been stated felt that not only should women of all classes have quality birth control, but a type of birth control that women have power over. They felt the only way women could be liberated was to have the unilateral power to control sexuality.
McCormick's husband, Cyrus McCormick was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder. People suffering with schizophrenia may hear voices other people don't hear or they may believe that others are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them. Fearing that the disease was inherited, she resolved never to have children -- and dedicated huge sums to the search for woman-controlled contraception. And the result was the development of the birth control pill. The first birth control pills which were introduced more than 40 years ago, contained high levels of estrogen and progestin. As they were associated with unpleasant side effects, it raised concern for safety. After that started the research and discovery and knowing what women wanted and thus we had the modern pills that were much than before.
Frank Colton was the inventor of Enovid, the first oral contraceptive - National Inventors Hall of Fame. By the end of the 1950s, the Sanger/Pincus pill came onto the market under the brand name Enovid. It was welcomed by women as a marvel, but, as a New York Times report said last year, Enovid began its life as a "massive overdose." It was discovered that the amount of hormones in Enovid was 10 times than needed for contraception when millions of woman had taken Enovid, and thousands died or became disabled by blood clots. Today, birth control pills rarely contain more than 50 mcg of estrogen, some as few as 20 mcg. There are two types of oral contraceptives: One is a combination pills that contains estrogen and progestin and the other only progestin.
Both pills prevent pregnancy in different ways:
Combination pills prevent a woman's ovaries from releasing eggs. (ovulation)
Progestin pills usually work by thickening cervical mucus, they also prevent ovulation. This prevents sperm from joining with an egg. The Pill stops ovulation, preventing the ovaries from releasing eggs.
The Pill is effective in preventing pregnancies up to 99 per cent if it is used correctly.
Although these pills were effective yet there was a drawback of this is that it does not protect against sexually transmitted infections.
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History of Birth Control Pill
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A controversial topic such as birth control may seem like a modern issue, but it's not. Contraceptives have been used in one form or another for thousands of years throughout human history and even prehistory. In fact, family planning has always been widely practiced, even in societies dominated by social, political, or religious codes that require people to "be fruitful and multiply."
A lot of different birth control devices have been created over the centuries and are now being marketed to the public. All of them supposedly have been tested by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) if it is safe to be marketed to and used by the public. However there is an ongoing controversy regarding the birth control patch.
Some people ask themselves if it's okay to engage in premarital sex and in their minds try to weigh its pros and cons. There are couples who engage in premarital sex way before they even get into high school. At the onset of puberty, kids begin to be curious about their sexuality. And without proper guidance, these kids explore and venture into the realm of the senses without much thought of the dire consequence of their impulsive actions. Come to think of it, teens are not the only ones guilty of such wanton behavior but even adults as well. Indeed, the world has shaped a permissive attitude towards premarital sex.
The availability of birth control has become one of the great revolutions of the 20th century, giving women a concrete way to prevent unwanted pregnancies. They are considered critical components of any reasonable attempt at birth control, even if they have possible side effects. Being products that rely on the manipulation and alteration of baseline hormone levels in the female body, birth control pills and patches can cause side effects that are unpleasant. However, there have been a multitude of supposedly anecdotal reports, all of which are known to be unconfirmed, that birth control patches can be lethal.
Is there really a connection between birth control and weight gain? In one recent survey, 50 per cent of all women felt that birth control pills would cause unwanted weight gain. Of these women, 20 per cent said this belief was the primary reason they would not use oral contraceptives. There are also evidences that women switch methods or birth control or stop using the pill because they think it contributes to weight gain. However, the good news is that the review found no evidence to support a casual association between combination contraceptives or birth control and weight gain.
We now live in a world where sex is as normal as going out to the movies. Even teenagers as young as fifteen years old are aware of the concept of premarital sex. And chances are, a lot of adolescents aged 15 to 19 are already sexually active. It is because we take sex so lightly that the rate of accidental pregnancies are going higher and higher up the charts.
The term 'birth control' almost always conjures images of birth control pills of different sizes and colors. For many years, the public has been led to believe that the use of the "Pill" is the only effective chemical and hormone-based contraception available. Of course, the use of the prophylactic condom is very popular especially among men.
