50 Years of 'The Pill'

HOUSTON - Oral contraception options for women have developed significantly over the last five decades.

FOX 26 News met with an expert at Fertility Specialists of Houston to learn more about how the pill can enhance a woman's life. 12 million women take oral contraceptives for many different reasons.

"First, was control for their own reproductive chances to determine when they were going to be ready to have a child. The second was all kinds of women take it for suppressing cysts and regulating cycles. We didn't have a good plan for those women, so it was a major clinical advantage for doctors at that point," explains Dr. Randall Dunn.

Patients can even determine what kind of cycle they have, which can be a big deal socially. Though the pill has evolved a lot over a 50-year period, the ingredients have stayed the same.

"The most important difference is the 'amount' of estrogen since the pill came out to today. Even though the type of estrogen is the same, the quantity to what we'd say would be 80 mg is now about 20 mg. So, the amount of estrogen, and some of the concerns people had with estrogen and the pill, is dramatically different because of the amount of estrogen."

"Progesterone is the second component in the pill, which is what keeps women from bleeding. It's that hormone that stabilizes the lining that is totally different now. These types of molecules weren't even known at the time it came out," says Dr. Dunn.

Makers of the pill figured out that this new type of progesterone helped with common problems like acne and weight gain that were once associated with the pill. They also realized that decreasing the amount of estrogen helps alleviate other annoying problems, "which helps, especially some sensations like bloating, abdominal pressure, breast engorgement, things that some women didn't like. Progesterone is so different today because it binds more specifically to what are called the receptors for that hormone. It's action is more unique for that hormone than ever before," says Dr. Dunn.

The final big difference in the pill since it was first widely distributed -- "Now, instead of 7 fake days, they've decreased the placebos or sugar pills to 4. That's because we know if you take it a little longer, it lowers the subsequent chance of cycle for failure as a contraceptive, because they haven't been on as many 'estrogen free days.' That was one of the earlier problems with the pill", says Dr. Dunn.

FOX 26 has learned that pill manufacturers say they are trying to create an oral contraceptive to help treat depression and prevent sexually-transmitted diseases, but they are not  available on the market yet.

For more information about Dr. Dunn, who has an office near the Texas Medical Center and in Sugar Land, visit Fertility Specialists of Houston at
http://www.fertilityhouston.net/randall-c-dunn.html .