Once upon a time, women could only pray and hope that they wouldn't get pregnant, or, if that failed, resort to some noxious substances in desperation to prevent an unwanted or inconvenient pregnancy. Contraception methods have come a long way from the early 20th century, when Margaret Sanger began her crusade for hormonal contraception, known more commonly today still as "the pill." Upon the pill's release to the American public in 1960, the modernization of women began to take full stride.
The pill provided women with an extremely effective means of contraception that the woman can control by herself. With a more effective rate of contraception than male condoms, diaphragms and other devices out there at the time, women embraced the pill. Within the next 40 years, society saw improvements in the pill and the evolution of hormonal contraception choices. Today, women have an overwhelming number of options.
The female reproductive system is influenced by two key steroid hormones -- estrogen and progesterone -- that work in response to signaling from the hypothalamus in the center of the brain. The hypothalamus, upon receiving hormone signaling, triggers the anterior pituitary, located right next to it, to begin producing gonadotropins, or hormones that stimulate the gonads. In the female, they are the ovaries.
Within the ovaries, a menstrual cycle signal allows for estrogen and progesterone levels within the ovaries to increase, triggering ovulation of an egg. As the egg travels down the fallopian tube in hopes of fertilization, the uterine lining, known as the endometrium, will begin to thicken in preparation for implantation. If no fertilization occurs, the woman has a period.
Hormonal contraception, however, utilizes the hormone signaling between the brain and gonads in what Dr. Janice Evans of the Bloomberg School of Public Health refers to as "negative feedback."
The contents of the pill and similar measures "trick" the female body into believing that there is sufficient levels of estrogen and/or progesterone cycling through the body, thus shutting down the gonadotropin surge within the ovaries and causing ovulation not to occur.
Progesterone by itself uses the body's defense system to create a barrier. It thickens cervical mucus, making it difficult for sperm to penetrate. Furthermore, the endometrium lining reacts by becoming poorly receptive to embryonic implantation.
According to Evans, pills should be taken regularly at or around the same time each day. You need not start a pack on a Sunday either.
Despite what many gynecologists say, the FDA has stated that hormonal contraception does take its full effect in a week of its first dose, not the mythical month that many women worry about.
In any case, to maintain the full effectiveness rate, hormonal contraception must be properly administered.
