Birth Control Pill - beware of new pills

[Lise]

For those of you taking new birth control pills, be aware that some of the newer ones out there will contain less estrogen and progestin. These pills were developed to reduce the risk of blood clot and other more serious side effects. Of course, on the flip side, you might end up with unwanted pregnancies.

   [H3][FONT size=6]Advisers nix new birth control pill rules[/FONT][/H3] [P class=timeStamp]Updated Wed. Jan. 24 2007 2:33 PM ET

 [P class=storyAttributes]Associated Press

 [!-- dateline --]WASHINGTON [!-- /dateline --]-- The government shouldn't set failure limits on birth control pills because that could put less-effective but still beneficial contraceptives off limits to women, federal health advisers recommended Wednesday.

 Newer, lower-dose birth control pills are less effective at preventing pregnancy than the first oral contraceptives approved beginning in 1960. Yet the newer drugs offer other health benefits or cause fewer side effects. That has split federal health officials on the need to define a pregnancy or failure rate that would be unacceptably high for next-generation pills.

 Throughout the 1960s, the earliest birth control pills to win Food and Drug Administration approval failed just once per 100 woman-years of use. That is, for every 100 women taking the pills for a year, there was fewer than one pregnancy on average among them.

 Today, newer pills contain less estrogen and progestin. Those pills can reduce the risk of blood clots, stroke and other sometimes deadly side effects. But as the hormone content of the pills has dipped, failure rates have climbed.

 [FONT size=1]Read more: [/FONT][A href="http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070124/pill_rules_070124/20070124?hub=Health"][FONT size=1]http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070124/pill_rules_070124/20070124?hub=Health[/FONT][/A]

[purelife]

That's funny.  I attended a focus group about a new birth control pill with less estrogen and progestin.  (just like how you mentioned it, Lise)  This birth control pill is actually a ring inserted in the virgina.  It's called Nuvaring, I think.  They wanted our opinions about how we would be open to a new form of "pill" and how and where we would like to see it advertised.  Funny that they never mentioned the side effects.  Go figure.

[Lise]

Uhm. Unless I'm reading this incorrectly, the impression I got was the pills were consumed orally. I'm all for lowering the side effects of these pills but not willing to take the chance that these new pills might cause an accidental pregnancy. I believe the FDA should not approve of these pills and that more research should be done into this area.

  Ah well. One can always use a condom in conjunction with the pill.