SEASONALE BIRTH CONTROL BLOG

Advancements in birth control give women more options

March 28, 2007

Several FDA approvals during the past few months are providing more birth control options for women and offering protection against viruses that can cause cervical cancer and genital warts.

Two of the approvals involve oral contraceptives, while a third is for the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine Gardasil.

Approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration on May 25, Seasonique is an oral contraceptive that reduces the number of menstrual periods from 13 each year to four and reduces the risk of problems such as breakthrough bleeding with its low-dose estrogen in place of the placebos that are common in other types of oral contraceptives. With Seasonique, patients take active tablets containing the progestin levonorgestrel (.15 mg) and the estrogen ethinyl estradiol (.03mg) for 84 consecutive days, followed by seven days of .01 mg of ethinyl estradiol.

The majority of oral contraceptives are based on a 21-day regimen of active pills followed by seven days of placebos.

Seasonique manufacturer Barr Laboratories Inc. in Woodcliff Lake, Bergen County, follows in the mold of its predecessor, Seasonale, an extended-regimen oral contraceptive which gained FDA approval in September 2003. Although Seasonale also allows only four menstrual cycles per year, its 84 active tablets are followed by seven days of inactive tablets.

Even before the introduction of Seasonique and Seasonale, women who wanted the convenience of delaying periods would do so by taking all of the active pills in their 28-day prescriptions, said Dr. Christina Chao of PennCare-Pine-lands OB/GYN Associates in Medford and Mount Holly.

The active pills prevent a wo-man’s body from building up the lining of the uterus, eliminating the need for the lining to shed, therefore no period results. With the conventional 28-day regimen, periods occur while taking the placebo tablets, and with Seasonique, while taking the final seven pills.

“In regular birth control pills, a lot of people take the whole pack of regular pills and not take the placebo,” said Chao.

Although the method works, patients might find Seasonique is a better choice for several reasons.

“If your prescription plan pays for a monthly pill, then you are short,” she said.

In addition, she said, “Having that estrogen all the time will prevent PMS (including mood swings), migraines (and menstrual headaches) and will decrease breakthrough bleeding (bleeding between periods).”

It also helps prevent painful periods (cramps) and endometriosis (tissue which lines the uterus found growing outside the uterus), said Chao.

Even with Seasonale, more breakthrough bleeding may occur during the first month of use, said Chao.

She said two new 24-day, active pill regimens include YAZ and Loestrin 24 Fe, which averages periods of less than three days. YAZ and Loestrin 24 Fe also contain “very low-dose estrogen” and because “you’re only off the (active) pill four days,” less breakthrough bleeding occurs, said Chao.

Serious risks associated with using oral contraceptives include blood clots, stroke and heart attack. Smokers, especially those over age 35, also face increased risks of cardiovascular problems, according to Dr. Robert Siefring, a member of the OB/GYN staff at Cooper University Hospital in Camden. The hormones in the contraceptives also can stimulate growth of uterine fibroid tumors in women who have them, he said. In addition, women who have undiagnosed genital bleeding or who have breast cancer should not take oral contraceptives, said Siefring.

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Siefring, who said he does not typically prescribe the extended-regimen contraceptives, “especially the Seasonale, which has more breakthrough bleeding,” acknowledged that convenience makes them attractive options.

Another factor to consider is the cost of contraceptive pills, which “is approaching $50 per month,” he said.

“I’m putting in more progestin IUDs — they’re good for five years,” said Siefring, and their cost $300, breaks down to $60 per year.

“They are very effective and eliminate the problem of the patient forgetting to take the pill or losing the pill,” he said.

Another product, which had been available as a prescription since 1999, earned FDA approval on Aug. 24 for over-the-counter use for women 18 and older. (Prescriptions are still required for patients 17 and younger.) Plan B (by Duramed Pharmaceuticals of Cincinnati, a subsidiary of Barr Pharmaceuticals), also known as emergency contraception or “morning after” pills, consists of two tablets containing the progestin levonorgestrel, a synthetic hormone which must be taken within 72 hours of having unprotected sex.

According to information on the FDA Web site, Plan B works to prevent pregnancy by stopping the release of an egg from the ovary. It also may prevent fertilization of the egg, or prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the womb. Plan B will not work if a fertilized egg has been implanted prior to taking the emergency pills.

“It’s not as effective as birth control,” said Chao, but, “if they do get pregnant anyhow, there’s no effect to the fetus.”

“Plan B has been a tremendous addition to our ability to treat a patient,” said Siefring. “We’ve had post-coital contraception before. It was a combination of pills, but the problem with that was that we’d have to call in scripts and it typically was associated with a lot of nausea and vomiting. You would take a significant amount of hormones,” he said.

“With Plan B, a protestin-only treatment, it doesn’t contain the estrogen. You still get some nausea, headache, abdominal pain and breast tenderness,” said Siefring.

Chao added that irregular bleeding may occur a week after taking the pills.

Yet, the over-the-counter availability of Plan B creates “less anxiety for the patient,” who may be embarrassed about calling a physician in the middle of the night to explain why she needs the emergency contraception, said Siefring.

E-Mail: LINDA WONDOL

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Cost of birth control pills for college students to go up

March 27, 2007

WASHINGTON DC - College students could soon see the cost of birth control pills double and even possibly triple.

A change in a Medicaid rebate law is wiping out the deep discounts that used to be offered to college students.

Some health care officials say they worry the price hike will cause students to use less-preferred contraceptives or even stop using them all together

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Giveaway day for birth control

March 21, 2007

ALBANY — Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood spent Tuesday giving away free emergency contraception to adults to mark the sixth annual Back Up Your Birth Control Day.

“It is an incredibly valuable resource for women to prevent pregnancy and better plan their childbearing,” Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood President Patricia A. McGeown said. “There are any number of reasons why you might need it, from sexual violence to a breakdown of a regular method.”

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A ruling by the federal Food and Drug Administration last summer approved nonprescription sales of the drug — sometimes called the “morning after” pill — to adults. Girls younger than 18 must still get a prescription under the law.

The clinics in Albany, Latham, Troy and Hudson gave one free emergency contraception package to anyone 18 and older who requested it and showed identification, McGeown said.

The package contained one packet of emergency contraception, medical information and instructions for use. It also included two condoms, and information about emergency contraception, safer sex and Planned Parenthood services.

The four clinics had 300 packages to give away. If they ran out, they planned to offer a rain check.

Most local drugstores now sell the emergency contraception packages over-the-counter, but they usually run about $40 a dose. Planned Parenthood charges $25.

Since a prescription is no longer required for adults, Planned Parenthood officials said those who got the pills Tuesday also could give them to a friend if needed.

Wendy Samson has volunteered at the Albany Planned Parenthood clinic since 1992. She has done everything from stuffing envelopes to helping escort patients past the small group of protesters who regularly gather outside the building. She was on hand Tuesday to make sure the giveaway went smoothly.

“I believe women should have access to health care and be able to exercise their rights,” said Samson, 40. “It’s not a right if no one is around to give you the care you need.”

Emergency contraception is especially useful in the Capital Region, McGeown said.

“Parts of Albany County have the highest rates of teen pregnancy in the state,” she said.

Last year, UHPP sold nearly 3,000 packs of emergency contraception. During that same period, the clinics performed about 2,000 abortions.

McGeown said it is too early to tell if the increased ease of getting emergency contraception will lead to a decrease in abortions performed.

Not everyone was happy about Planned Parenthood’s distribution.

When you give away contraception pills “you are promoting sexual activity,” said Eivion Williams, executive director of Alpha Pregnancy Care Center, a Christian organization that counsels pregnant women through unintended pregnancies. “You are telling people it is OK to do that as long as you use protection.”

Emergency contraception, also known as Plan B, typically uses two pills and contains the same type of hormones found in regular birth control pills. It works by preventing ovulation or fertilization of an egg.

While emergency contraception also is sometimes known by the “morning after” title, McGeown said she does not like it.

“We prefer not to use that term, because we don’t want women to think they have to take it the next morning,” she said. “In reality, it can be used up to five days later.”

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Birth control methods put end to life that already has begun

March 15, 2007

The Tribune’s Dec. 20 report on the opening of the Olive Street Health Center noted that the center would provide, among other services, most methods of birth control approved by the Federal Drug Administration, including “Plan B emergency contraception.” “The clinic,” said the article, “will not deny services to minors who are sexually active … Young teens … are promised confidentiality and assured that their parents won’t be notified … Clients of any age can receive contraceptives or referral for an abortion.”

The article failed to mention that Plan B, the “morning-after” pill, can operate as an abortifacient. Plan B, a higher dose of the birth control pill which can be sold only by prescription, is marketed as an “emergency contraceptive,” but that is a misnomer.

Like most oral contraceptives, Plan B operates in three ways: It prevents ovulation; it prevents fertilization, the union of the sperm and the ovum; or, if fertilization occurs, it alters the lining of the womb so as to prevent the embryo (i.e., the new human being) from implanting in the womb. Implantation, five to seven days after fertilization, is necessary for the embryo to draw nutrition and survive.

As stated in Keith L. Moore’s and T.V.N. Persaud’s book, “The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology,” “Postcoital birth control pills (morning-after pills) … taken within 72 hours after sexual intercourse usually prevent implantation of the blastocyst. …These hormones prevent implantation, not fertilization. Consequently, they should not be called contraceptive pills. It would be more appropriate to call them ‘contraimplantation pills.’ Because the term abortion refers to a premature stoppage of a pregnancy, the term abortion could be applied to such an early termination of pregnancy.”

The embryo is a human being. Beyond any rational doubt, the life of each human being begins at fertilization. When Louise Brown, the world’s first “test-tube baby,” was born in 1978, the whole world knew when her life began, at the in vitro fertilization. Even with identical twins, we know there is at least one life present at fertilization.

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Since the mid-1960s, “pregnancy” has been widely redefined so as to begin not at fertilization but at implantation. That made it possible to market birth control pills as contraceptives despite the fact that most of them prevent implantation and are therefore abortifacients. Plan B, in preventing the implantation of the new human being in the womb, causes the death of that human being. To use or provide Plan B, according to the manufacturer’s directions, necessarily involves the intent to cause the death of a human being. The intent is to prevent pregnancy, including by ending the life of the child if the life of that child has already begun.

In August 2006, the FDA approved over-the-counter sales of Plan B, the morning-after pill, without a prescription, by pharmacists to men and women who can prove that they are over 18. The Olive Street Health Center evidently will provide Plan B to girls under the age of 18. Perhaps a future Tribune article will explore the reality that the availability of the morning-after pill can provide an added means to induce the consent to sexual relations of a young female client of the center.

Abortion, of course, including early abortion by Plan B, is the inevitable result of the cultural acceptance of contraception, in which a man or woman makes himself or herself the arbiter of whether and when life shall begin. Predictably, he will make himself the arbiter of when life shall end, in abortion and euthanasia. The general acceptance of Plan B reflects the decadence of a culture in which the intentional infliction of death upon the innocent is an optional problem-solving technique.

Legalized abortion, of course, provides the primary example. Another is the legal and cultural acceptance of the killing of patients by starvation or excessive sedation when the family and caregivers agree that the patient would want, or perhaps ought to want, to depart.

The opening of an institution such as the Olive Street Health Center, especially in a largely Hispanic neighborhood, deserves not celebration but clarification. At the very least, The Tribune owes its readers a full explanation of the “services” rendered by the center.

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Ask the Sexpert

March 12, 2007

As you’ve heard, there are now birth control options for women who want to have fewer periods. One is called Seasonale and the other Seasonique. Both are designed to limit a woman’s menstrual cycle to about four a year. The pills work the same way that other birth control pills work, except you stop taking them every 83 days instead of every 21.

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Women might opt to have fewer periods for a number of reasons. For some, menstruation is so painful that they want to endure it as few times per year as possible. Other women just think that periods are annoying and that there’s no reason to have them.

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Park Officials Try Birth Control Method To Curb Squirrel Population

March 8, 2007

Nidhi Sharma - All Headline News Staff Writer

Santa Monica, CA (AHN) - In a bid to control the ever-growing population of squirrels, officials at Santa Monica’s Palisades Park are injecting them with birth control medicine. The squirrels will be injected with an immuno-contraceptive vaccine meant to stunt sexual development as a form of birth control.

The officials decided to opt for this method of birth control after other methods like euthanasia; poison or gassing failed to control their population. There are around 1,000 squirrels in the Park that can be aggressive and dangerous to the health of people they come in contact with.

SF Gate quotes Joe McGrath, the city’s parks chief as saying, “We don’t want to kill them if we don’t have to. I personally like squirrels, but we also have to be receptive to the county’s concerns.”

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Squirrels are possible carriers of rabies, or fleas, which could carry diseases like bubonic plague. The new vaccine that stops lactation and ovulation in females and testicular growth in males has no side effects. Berkeley is the only other city to try this method, which was developed by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. It comes at a cost of $2-$10.

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Santa Monica squirrels to be given birth control

March 6, 2007

The squirrels will be going on the pill at a Southern California park.
Actually, the birth control hormones will be given by injection to the rodents in Palisades Park in Santa Monica.

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Officials report the squirrels are breeding like rabbits. Many in the community don’t want the squirrel population controlled by killing the animals. So, officials say the birth control shots shouldn’t upset the animal lovers.

This summer, the shots will be given to both the male and female squirrels in the park.

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