A PILL TO ELIMINATE MENSTRUATION
Scientists have developed a new contraceptive pill that promises to
eliminate menstruation completely.
Developed by New Jersey-based Wyeth, one of the world’s biggest
pharmaceutical companies, the new Pill, ‘Anya’, may help women to
avoid unplanned pregnancies and the inconvenience of periods,
reported the online edition of daily mail. Critics have warned that oral
contraceptives raise the risk of blood clots and breast cancer. They
said continuous exposure to hormones might increase these risks
and make it harder to spot potential health problems. However, the
manufacturer said the pill that has to be taken 365 days a year
without a break was given to about 2,000 women for a study and just
six had serious side effects such as prolonged bleeding or blood
clots. Like any other pill, ‘Anya’ avoids pregnancy by stopping
ovulation, preventing eggs being released by copying the hormonal
state of pregnancy. Numerous studies show this does not harm a
woman’s fertility because ovulation resumes when she stops taking
the pill.
A woman’s body normally prepares for pregnancy every month by
building up the lining of the womb. However, if the egg is unfertilised,
the lining is shed in the process of menstruation. Because the pill
stops ovulation, the womb lining does not build up in the normal way.
The ‘withdrawal bleed’ a woman gets when she takes a seven-day
break from other contraceptive pills is in fact triggered simply by the
sudden drop in hormone levels. However, in the case of the new pill,
there is no trigger for this process as there is no break and the lining
remains without causing any problem to the woman.
Wyeth hopes to make the pill available for sale in the US next year
and across the EU later. Analysts believe it could generate 170
million pounds annually in worldwide sales.
-DR.NAVRAJ SINGH SANDHU