News

Friday May 7, 2010


Hormonal Birth Control Pill Reduces Women’s Sexual Function: Study

By Hilary White

May 7, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – At the same time as the hormonal birth control pill turns 50, researchers have found a link between it and sexual dysfunction in the women who take it. In a German study, 32 per cent of over 1000 women surveyed who took the pill, were found to have some form of sexual dysfunction.

“Our data show that hormonal contraception in particular, was associated with lower desire and arousal scores when compared with other contraceptives,” the researchers, led by Lisa-Maria Wallwiener, MD, of the University of Heidelberg, wrote. The group experiencing the lowest levels of sexual dysfunction was that using non-hormonal forms of birth control.

“The effect of hormones is there, we have an association. But, at this time, we cannot say if this is causality,” said co-author Dr. Alfred Mueck, professor in the Centre of Women’s Health at the University of Tubingen. “We can only say there might be an effect of hormonal contraceptives (on sexual functioning). But this is only one factor beside other factors that can influence sexual function.”

A study, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, examined results from 1086 female German medical students and found that those taking birth control pills and other forms of hormonal contraception were at the highest risk for low libido and arousal problems. Lack of sexual desire is the main problem that women report, along with lack of orgasm, an inability to become aroused, and painful intercourse.

The researchers believe that the pill can lower circulating levels of testosterone, the hormone needed to stimulate sexual desire and regulate blood flow to the genitals, in both sexes.

The journal’s editor-in-chief, Dr. Irwin Goldstein, wrote, “When you fool around with your sex steroid hormones, you gamble with your sex life.”

“The value of this paper is to remind us that 300 million users of the pill (worldwide) are putting themselves at risk (of sexual changes), with extremely limited informed consent that this is happening,” Goldstein said.

The women, from six different medical schools, filled out online questionnaires designed to identify problems with sexual function within the past four weeks based on the “Female Sexual Function Index,” a validated scale consisting of 19 questions on the physical details of sexual function. Of the group, about 90 per cent used contraception, and almost all had been sexually active in the previous four weeks. Eighty per cent were in a “stable relationship,” that was defined as having had the same sex partner for at least the past six months. 70 per cent of the women surveyed used hormonal contraceptives.

Since their introduction in the early 1960s, hormonal contraceptives have become one of the two most popular methods of artificial contraception, next to sterilization, with an estimated 300 million women using them worldwide. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the pill on May 9, 1960.

Elaine Tyler May, 62, a University of Minnesota history professor and author of the book “America and the Pill” told Associated Press this week that the expectations held for the pill in the early 60s have failed to materialize.

“Married couples could have happier sex with more freedom and less fear. The divorce rate might go down and there would be no more unwanted pregnancies,” she said. “None of those things happened, not the optimistic hopes or the pessimistic fears of sexual anarchy.”

Despite May’s assurance about “sexual anarchy,” however, statistics show that while the number of people getting married continues to fall in most western countries where the use of the pill is common, those same countries have seen an explosion of sexually transmitted diseases and out-of-wedlock pregnancies. Nearly half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended and nearly half of those end in abortion.

Britain has been especially susceptible to the sexual anarchy that May says has not happened, with one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the developed world.

While schools have become a common source of free contraception for girls, without parent’s knowledge or consent, figures released this week by the Office of National Statistics show that about 40,000 British girls under 18 became pregnant in 2008, or 40 per 1000. A report issued by the Relationships Foundation, a British think tank, said that family breakdown is costing the British taxpayer about £41.7 billion per year. This estimate includes £12.38 billion in tax credits and benefits, £4.27 billion in housing support, and £13.68 billion in health and social care.