The history should include current sexual history, past problems with weight gain, acne, headaches, dysmenorrhea, irregular menses, nausea, and abdominal pain.
21. Food and Drug Administration: Oral contraceptives and the risk of blood clots. FDA Talk Paper November 24, 1995
The estrogen in combined OCs is either mestranol or ethinyl estradiol (EE). Mestranol must be converted to EE to be active; 50 µg of mestranol approximates 35 µg of EE.
Most OCs are given in a 28-day cycle, with 21 days of pills containing active hormones and seven days of placebo or reminder pills.
Correct and effective use of an OC by patients who are medically eligible depends on the characteristics of the user, side effects of the formulation chosen, cost of the pill, and ease of access to the pill. Assessing these factors is important because stopping or misusing an OC is a frequent cause of unintended pregnancy in adolescents. 8 If taken correctly, OCs have a failure rate of less than 1%; for the average user, however, OCs fail approximately 7% of the time during the first year. 9
Because many teenagers have had sexual intercourse by the time they complete high school, it is important for physicians who treat adolescents to become comfortable talking to them about abstinence and birth control. Oral contraceptives are a reliable, safe choice of birth control for most teens.
The higher the relative binding affinity of an OC for the progesterone receptor, the lower the dose required to inhibit ovulation. Levonorgestrel has the highest binding affinity, followed by desogestrel and its metabolite. 12
Birth control pills were fought hard for, providing as they do the ability of women to claim reproductive control over their bodies.
All of these functions can be immensely altered by endocrine disruptors, typically with negative consequences. Estrogen is the master female hormone – regulating all energy production and brain function, as well as bone, joint, muscle, gut, and immune health.
There is a growing body of data to support the conclusion that the use of birth control pills is at the root of much of the global female disease epidemic. Studies show birth control pills reduce the development of strong bones, negatively impact gut and immune health, damage vaginal and bladder health, and impact brains.
Some women on birth control pills quickly develop issues with vaginal health, or worse, life-threatening blood clots. Others become depressed, or even suicidal. Some rapidly become hypertensive. Other symptoms can take decades to develop, including irritable bowel syndrome, autoimmune diseases, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, atherosclerosis, diabetes and insulin resistance, kidney disease, even dementia.
The fact that they are marketed widely around the world as hormones doesn’ t make them hormones. You can call a piece of glass a diamond … but it’s not – it’s glass.
But by substituting these with chemical mimics, birth control pills disrupt the natural hormonal production of women, taking away their inherent and necessary rhythms, for the purpose of creating infertility.