Pfizer's Birth Control Fail and the Future of Contraception
In case you missed it, Pfizer announced yesterday that it would be recalling 1 million packets of birth control pills due to a packaging error. According to the AP, some of the drug packets contained too many active tablets, while others had too few, leaving the pharmaceutical giant fearing the possibility of an inadequate dose and accidental pregnancy.
While most woman taking birth control have missed a day before — every packet contains a few placebos — it's rare that the manufacturer is to blame. According to Dr. Adam Griffin, who spoke with the Huffington Post, women who think they might have taken the recalled birth control should contact their doctor right away. He also reassured those who might have accidentally taken birth control while pregnant that the pills shouldn't affect the baby's health.
Ever since the introduction of the Pill in 1960, the overall teen birth rate has been falling in the U.S., hitting its lowest mark in about 70 years in 2010. Despite the proliferation of birth control methods, many young women are still shockingly misinformed. In a recent study done by the Centers for Disease Control, about a third of teenage mothers who had unintended pregnancies said that they didn't realize they could become pregnant, even without any protection.
For decades, birth control has been largely a female responsibility. From 2006 to 2008, just 25 percent of women reported having sex with men who used condoms or had vasectomies. The rest of the time, the women took the initiative, with the most popular methods being pills, tubal sterilization, and IUDs.
Soon, men may be able to share in the burden. According to John Schiezer of MSNBC, a safe, effective and reversible hormonal male contraceptive is on the horizon, giving men the option of a daily pill to be taken orally or a patch or gel to be applied to the skin. And earlier this week, University of North Carolina researchers found that zapping the testicles of rats with a therapeutic ultrasound machine, the type normally used by physical therapists to treat muscle injuries, abolished the germ cells that produce sperm. According to the study, just two 15-minute zap sessions was enough to drop sperm counts to below baby-making levels, with results after just two weeks.
"This method dropped sperm counts 10-times lower than just using heat," said James Tsuruta, lead author of the study and assistant professor of pediatrics in the laboratories of reproductive biology at UNC Chapel Hill, to ABC. "It's going to be exciting to figure out how this exactly works: if it's safe to use repeatedly, how long it lasts, and if it's reversible."
Of course, with sperm counts continuing to drop precipitously, future generations of men may be more focused on improving fertility rather than impairing it. In the mean time, let's hope for the best and keep our cell phones out of our pockets.
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