Despite protest The contraceptive pill will be 50 years

50th birthday of the contraceptive pill: Successful or socially harmful

31/05/2011

50 years ago the birth control pill was approved in Germany. After the market launch was initially accompanied by massive protest from various social groups, the contraceptive pill quickly developed into a successful model. About one in every two women between the ages of eighteen and 49 years is using the pill today, reports the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA).

Since then, the birth control pill has made it possible for young women, in particular, to plan their own life and family plans. But the hormone preparations brought not only benefits, but also some serious disadvantages such as possible side effects and an increased hormone load of the wastewater with it. Although today's hormone preparations in comparison to the introduced on June 1, 1961 first German birth control pill „Anovlar“ Working with minimal hormone doses, significant side effects can still occur. Initially, the pills even looked like regular hormone bombs, which were often characterized by massive side effects such as a significant weight gain, nausea, migraine or depression. Nevertheless, especially young women celebrated the contraceptive pill in the 1960s as a kind of sexual revolution.

100 million women use the contraceptive pill
According to estimates of the Federal Center for Health Education today, more than six million women in Germany are using the contraceptive pill. The side effects such as breast tenderness, chest pain, headache, nausea, fungal infections, mood swings and impaired libido have not stopped the triumph of the contraceptive pill. The continuing protest on the part of the Catholic Church and the extremely conservative social groups did no harm to the success story of the contraceptive pill. Already two years after its launch on the US market in 1960, more than 2 million Americans took the pill daily; in 1968 there were already more than six million and currently, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 100 million women are estimated to use the contraceptive pill worldwide. The pharmaceutical industry has also recognized the market potential of the pill as a contraceptive and currently around 20 manufacturers in Germany offer more than 100 different preparations. For example, the pharmaceutical company Schering (now Bayer), which also introduced the first contraceptive pill on the German market in 1961, currently offers 20 different hormonal contraceptives (for example, the world's best-selling contraceptive pill) „Yasmin“) and generates an annual turnover of just under three billion euros. Other big players in the pill business are Grünenthal and international companies such as Pfizer, Novartis and MSD.

Alternative birth control methods
Despite its multiple side effects, the contraceptive pill is still the most popular contraceptive in Germany today. Other relatively harmless synthetic contraceptive methods that have significantly less side effect, such as the spiral, are not used so widely. But there are also alternatives on a natural basis, which ensure a relatively high contraceptive security. These include, for example, the Mexican Wild Yam or in German: the Mexican wild yam. This had already in the invention of birth control pills an essential meaning, because the Mexican Wild Yam has been used in the healing of Mexican primitive folk for generations for the treatment of various symptoms but also for the prevention. In the middle of the last century, western scientists became aware of the effects of the Mexican Wild Yam and intensively researched the active ingredient of the plant, which is responsible for the contraceptive effect. The researchers discovered the hormone-like drug diosgenin and developed based on the first synthetic drugs, which were later used as an anti-birth control pill.

Natural Contraceptive Mexican Wild Yam
As a natural contraceptive, the Mexican Wild Yam, in contrast to the recovered synthetic drugs, causes no known side effects. Rather, the plant helps in low dose in the treatment of complaints such as spasms in colic, inflammation and rheumatic pain. In addition, the Mexican Wild Yam is considered sweat, urinary and cholinergic and should develop a hepatoprotective effect. With regard to contraception, however, it is unclear whether only diosgenin is used to build up contraception, or if other active ingredients of the root also contribute. Therefore, when used as a contraceptive in any case, the consumption of the whole root is recommended. The American midwife Willa Shaffer said in her book in 1986 about 3,000 milligrams of the powdered root must eat a woman daily to build effective contraception „Wild Yam: Birth Control Without Fear“. The special thing about the Mexican Wild Yam is that neither the ovulation nor the ovulation or the natural menstrual cycle is impaired, manipulated or even prevented by the ingestion of the root. „This is a contraceptive with no known side effects, which obviously has an incredibly high success rate“ Willa Shaffer wrote 25 years ago. The daily intake of 3,000 milligrams of Mexican Wild Yam powder (in capsules) achieves an average contraceptive safety of 97 percent, which, if taken regularly, has a natural lifestyle and stable health, is practically 100 percent contraceptive, the expert explained. (Fp)

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