OTC Pill

Last week the FDA approved the first over the counter birth control pill (Belluck et al., 2023), which is expected to be widely utilized and increase use of hormonal birth control by teenagers among other demographics.  The New York Times article went on to say that the manufacturer even plans to offer ways for people who can’t afford it to get it for free.  They note that while not all insurance is currently willing to pay for over the counter contraception, it’s possible that in the future the government might require them to cover it.  The pill that received approval is a progestin-only mini-pill called Opill, but there is also a combination pill in the process of seeking approval. 

 

Progestin-only oral contraceptive use has been found to be associated with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes (Kjos et al., 1998).  Type 2 diabetes is indicative of disruption to the communication node.  Some women may be more sensitive to exogenous hormones and more likely to experience side effects from oral contraceptives than others (Bird et al., 2011).  This may be because their communication node is already dysregulated.  Oral contraceptives have also been found to be associated with an increased risk for asthma (Macsali et al., 2009).  The exogenous hormones may be interfering with normal function of the transport node.  Oral contraceptive use appears to increase risk for developing Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (Ortizo et al., 2017).  This represents an impairment of the assimilation node as well as the structural integrity node.  Oral contraceptive use seems to have a qualitative effect on the way that women use their brains (Pletzer et al., 2014), also an impact on the communication node.  In summary, these exogenous hormones are interacting with several of the nodes in ways that may be undesirable, and particularly on the communication node.  All of the hormones are interrelated, and manipulating one can impact others. 

 

References:

 

Belluck, P. (2023, July 14). F.D.A. Approves Selling Of Pill Over Counter. The New York Times, A1. 

 

Bird, J., & Oinonen, K. (2011). Elevated eating disorder symptoms in women with a history of oral contraceptive side effects. Archives of Women’s Mental Health, 14(4), 345–353.  

 

Kjos, S. L., Peters, R. K., Xiang, A., Thomas, D., Schaefer, U., & Buchanan, T. A. (1998). Contraception and the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Latina women with prior gestational diabetes mellitus. JAMA, 280(6), 533–538. 

 

Macsali, F., Real, F. G., Omenaas, E. R., Bjorge, L., Janson, C., Franklin, K., & Svanes, C. (2009). Oral contraception, body mass index, and asthma: a cross-sectional Nordic-Baltic population survey. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 123(2), 391–397. 

 

Ortizo, R., Lee, S. Y., Nguyen, E. T., Jamal, M. M., Bechtold, M. M., & Nguyen, D. L. (2017). Exposure to oral contraceptives increases the risk for development of inflammatory bowel disease: a meta-analysis of case-controlled and cohort studies. European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, 29(9), 1064–1070. 

 

Pletzer, B., Kronbichler, M., Nuerk, H.-C., & Kerschbaum, H. (2014). Hormonal contraceptives masculinize brain activation patterns in the absence of behavioral changes in two numerical tasks. Brain Research, 1543, 128–142.