Question marks over the Pill Using women as guinea pigs
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-10-27Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 4 →
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FOR the past 30 years women's bodies have been used as laboratories in a gigantic drug test.
The contraceptive pill was tested first on Puerto Rican women before being prescribed for Western women, and it was very successful in reliably preventing conception.
The pill works by drastically altering hormone levels, so fooling the body into believing it is pregnant each month - and noone knows the long-term effects of this. Now we are finding out.
Already high ostrogen pills are being prescribed much less often, because of the danger of blood clots and damage to the blood system. Now, two articles in last week's Lancet suggest cancer risks from the pill.
High level The first one concerns only those pills with a high progestogen level. Women under 25 who take this type of pill for several years run an increased risk of breast cancer later on. Some 2.6 million women are taking such pills, though many will be over The second study concerns all pill-users and states that they run a l * 35% greater risk of cervical cancer. Women using the pill for more than eight years run double HOUSING Benefit was the normal risk of cervical cancer.
On a positive note, all women diagnosed to have cervical cancer in the study séemed to be cured by their treatment. Therefore the authors of the study recommend routine smear testing of all longterm pill users.
Incidentally, official advice to use up your prescription before seeing your doctor has been criticised because many women get a year's supply at once.
These studies have been criticised and in fact conflict with the results of previous studies. Other research seems to show that the pill reduces the risk of cancers of the ovary and the womb.
But one thing is sure, the chemical approach is severely limited and physical approaches (setting up a physical barrier between the sperm and the egg) are likely to become more popular in future. These include cervical cap, the sheath, and vasectomy. GHT" URUC JOHN HARRIS