Up to 50% of women using daily oral contraceptive pills forget to take the pill at least once in a three-month interval.
For this reason, you will be particularly pleased to know that a light effective birth control pill has just been developed. A new contraceptive remedy, without contraindications, that is taken only once a month. Light, of the latest generation, low dosage, in other words it will be the best birth control pill on the market. And if you make a mistake like that, oh, you see that the baby wants it at all costs (joke: it's rare, but you can also get pregnant by taking the pill).
How does the birth control pill work?
The gelatin capsule, until now only tested on pigs, dissolves in the stomach releasing a six-pointed star-shaped structure that remains in the stomach for at least three weeks and releases synthetic hormones to prevent pregnancy.
Scientists say it could help prevent unplanned pregnancies caused by mistakes in daily pill use. How impactful is the effect? How long does it take for the pill to take effect?
A good star. Not just for the birth control pill
The professor. Robert Langer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a co-author of the study, said the approach could eventually be applied to an even wider range of applications beyond those of birth control pills.
This “star” system is very promising and appears to be free of side effects: drug delivery systems have been tested on animals by the same team to deliver antimalarial drugs and antiretroviral therapy against HIV. For other types of drugs it has also been tested on humans.
“I hope there are pills to treat different diseases safely, such as mental health diseases and opioid addiction, Alzheimer's, AIDS”He says.
This new study is the first of its kind. The first who adopts this system to administer a birth control pill, I mean. And the method has proven to effectively release the drug over a long period.
The study has been published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. In the paper, Langer and colleagues report how they designed the capsule and polymer system. The team modified their structure to increase its surface area. He then monitored the rate of hormone release and finally tested the system to ensure it could withstand the acidic environment of the stomach.
Laboratory tests of the new birth control pill. It works?
The team tested two prototypes of the new monthly contraceptive pill on six female pigs. A practice not only on estrogen-progestin drugs, but on all. Before testing the ability of these monthly pills to prevent pregnancy, the team looked at the level of the synthetic progestin hormone released and its correlations with ovulation. He then compared these levels with those of five sows given a single “daily” oral contraceptive pill of the same hormone.
Both forms of the monthly pill showed a slower and more prolonged release of the hormone compared to the daily pill.
At 21 days, pigs given the monthly pill still had levels of the hormone on par with levels measured within about a day in pigs given a dose of the daily pill.
After 29 days the hormone was still present in their blood. In contrast, the hormone was almost completely eliminated within two days for pigs given a daily dose of the pill.
While X-ray imaging revealed that for some pigs the polymer structure of the monthly pill began to deteriorate during the month, this did not result in a sharp drop in hormone levels.
The team claims that a spin-off company called Lyndra Therapeutics will work on developing the technology. The aim is to ensure that the hormones are released at the desired time and that the system subsequently leaves the stomach. Above all, that the dosages are adapted to humans. The goal is to produce a pill containing synthetic estrogen and progestin that women can take just once a month, improving pregnancy control and health in general.
Once a month birth control pills are needed
Various researches say that up to 50% of women who use daily oral contraceptive pills are missing at least one dose in a three-month interval. This potentially puts them at risk of becoming pregnant. And so in the face of the official case history (only 1 in 100 women should become pregnant by taking a daily pill regularly), in real life the missed doses lead about 9 in 100 women to pregnancy.
Ingesting a monthly pill, the team says, could reduce such errors during use, potentially reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies.
Two things are expected. One is the indication of the price (an indication of cost, knowing where to buy etc.). The other is the male counterpart. Yes, I mean, the birth control pill, right? The pill for men. If nothing else, we all deserve some certainty in life.
