Combined oral contraceptives
“Combined oral contraceptives were the first type of hormonal contraceptives to be developed. They include a combination of oestrogens (hormones produced by the ovarian follicles) and progestogen (synthetic hormones that imitate progesterone).”
“The combined pill was presented by its promoters (the Catholic Dr. John Rock, in particular) purely as an ‘anti-ovulant’ which suspended the functioning of the ovary in a way that seemed completely morally acceptable. It was claimed that what nature did spontaneously during pregnancy and lactation could be practiced through the consumption of hormones, considered to be ‘natural’ elements.”
“However, as early as the 1950s, it had been realized that the mechanism of the effective action of the combined oestroprogestogenic pill could not be defined as mere prevention of ovulation. We know today that combined oral contraceptives have at least three points of impact on the organism, with reference to each of the three stages leading to the development of the child in the mother’s womb:
- coagulation of the cervical mucus and hindrance – without total prevention – of the ascent of spermatozoa from the vagina towards the uterus.
- blocking of ovulation: the egg doesn’t form in the ovary. However, suppression is not total (“escape ovulation” takes place in 5% of cases) and fertilization remains possible (1.25% of cycles);
- prevention of the development of the mucous membrane in the endometrium, which becomes severely atrophied and incapable of receiving a fertilized egg. This leads to early abortion through the non-implantation of the embryo. It is this action on the endometrium which is known as the ‘interceptive’ effect of the pill: embryos whose creation the contraceptive has been unable to prevent in the uterine tubes are ‘intercepted’ in the uterus, which has been transformed into an environment hostile to life.”
Does “the pill” have an abortive effect, in addition to its contraceptive effect?
“In view of the incidence of unpleasant side-effects and complications – in particular thromboembolic and hypertensive complications – generated by the high doses initially present in the pill, the oestrogen and progestogen content of the combined contraceptive pill was progressively reduced to produce the ‘classic’ pill with a thousand times less oestrogen content and ten times less progestogen as the initial pill. The result is a lesser inhibition of ovarian activity, allowing ovulation to occur in approximately one in ten cycles, as was observed in a pelvic scan. As some spermatozoa manage to go up the female genital tract despite contraception, fertilization can occur during these ‘escape ovulations’. Now, practically no pregnancy is observed in women who take ‘the pill’ regularly with no error. This means that embryos that do form in the fallopian tube are not able to nidate in the uterus of women taking the pill and an abortion takes place, a very discreet abortion that the woman herself does not notice. It is the pill’s inhibitive effect on the uterine endometrium that causes this loss of embryos, as the uterus becomes unable to receive the embryo. This is no longer in the domain of contraception, but in that of early abortion.”
“In the absence of reliable user-friendly biological markers to detect the presence of the embryo before implantation, it is not possible to reach an objective assessment of the percentage of early abortions caused by the use of oestroprogestogenic contraception. An approximate assessment based on deduction would be that a woman taking the oestroprogestogenic contraceptive pill for 15 years would, in so doing, unknowingly destroy around two embryos. Even if halved to take account of the prevention of fertilization achieved by cervical mucus, the figure remains significant, having regard to the number of women taking oestroprogestogenic contraceptives (4 million in France alone)”.