ORTHOEVRA BIRTH CONTROL BLOG

A tough pill to swallow

January 29, 2007

Once again, the IU student body has been left in the dark. The sudden closing of Cold Stone Creamery’s Kirkwood store left us feeling betrayed and gave no time to adjust our dietary habits accordingly, and now we have received more belated bad news.

To comply with a new federal law, the IU Health Center has drastically upped the prices of birth control products, without first informing its customers.

That’s kind of a big deal to us. Next time, we would appreciate a little heads-up.

This change is by no means unique to IU. Across the nation, college health centers are losing their bulk discount rates because of a new federal law barring pharmaceutical companies from continuing to offer group-purchasing discounts.

Good idea or not? You tell us: Abstinence is far from being the prevailing trend on the IU campus, and after hearing the entreaties of the powers that be for years on end, 4,200 women across campus have consented to practice sex in such a way that they don’t end up with “mini-thems” nine months later. Shouldn’t Congress support that decision? Or would they prefer that we just stop using birth control and flood the welfare system with babies? After all, if college kids are too poor to buy birth control, supporting a child is just out of the question. While they might be OK for students, the college dietary staples (beer and Easy Mac) are not ideal for feeding a baby.

Drugs Online - Buy Drugs Online at reasanoble prices.DrugOnline.cc provides confortable and easy way to order drugs online including drugs free shipping.

There’s still one more consideration in this controversy: Since birth control prices are increasing, should we be worried about the costs of other drugs climbing? Well, maybe, but rest assured that certain drugs are still being sold at a common rate. “Vital” drugs such as male performance enhancers are still available to college students on the cheap side. CVS pharmacy sells ViraMax DS, one such enhancer, at 60 tablets for $13.99.

As crucial as such enhancing drugs are in day-to-day college existence, we are left speculating about the latent sexism and ageism behind this new regulation. Birth control might not be a personal concern for the mostly elderly Congress, but come on! When they were in school, they experienced the phenomenon known as “free love.” Now that collegiate sexual practices have become reliant on birth control, is it fair to jack up the prices and deny us our free love?

When all is said and done, the loss of the group discount rate will probably not cause those on birth control to stop buying it. Nor will it stop them from having sex. But it will cause a lot of whining about the price change — our prerogative, given the circumstances. Once again, we have a semidiscriminatory decision coming down from Congress that hurts the less affluent among us.

Before Congress considers passing another bill like this one, we suggest it does a bit more to publicize the proceedings and take into account the feedback it receives. Just because U.S. population trends point to huge increases in older adults does not mean the “poor college student” demographic should be ignored.

Posted by toshko under Ortho Evra News | Comments (0)

Is there ever going to be a male birth control pill?

January 23, 2007

It’s Friday night. You’re meeting your best girl, Lorraine, down at the River Bottom Jamboree at eight. But, before deciding what to wear, you want to make sure your sperm count is as low as it can be, just in case you and Lorraine decide to go “parking.�

So you find yourself immersed from the waist down in scalding hot water, eyeing a thermometer as the mercury bobbles around 116 degrees Fahrenheit. When the temperature dips, you tighten your jaw and add a bit more boiling water, hoping that the heat sufficiently stops your sperm production. Forty-five excruciating minutes later you rise-up out of the tub, rosy cheeked and temporarily infertile, staving off fatherhood for another night.

Sound familiar? No? Well, men have done this, and continue to do so, since at least the fifth century B.C. when the Greek physician Hippocrates noticed that applying heat to male genitals lowered fertility. It would seem that if men are willing to endure such tortures, they want more control over the baby making process. They may soon get it.

While modern medicine – in the form of intrauterine devices, cervical caps, diaphragms, patches, pills, and sponges – has contributed to an age of reproductive control for women, it has largely left the procreating male in his cave.

Hot bath option excluded, men have but two realistic options for preventing unplanned pregnancies: wearing a condom or simply turning the tap off forever. Within a few years, however, men in the U.S. may have the added alternative of using a hormonal contraceptive that would lower or eliminate their sperm count by raising the body’s level of testosterone.

Testosterone levels in the blood determine how much sperm a man will produce. In a healthy male, the testes receive hormonal signals from the pituitary gland directing them to increase sperm production. As they follow their orders, the testes release testosterone and the hormone inhibin into the blood where they are detected by the pituitary gland and hypothalamus. At high levels, inhibin and testosterone cause the pituitary to turn off its signal to the testes, which causes the sperm count to drop, testosterone levels to sink, and the “negative feedback� loop to begin all over again. The result of this cycle is a steady, continuous level of sperm.

Drugs Online - Buy Drugs Online at reasanoble prices.DrugOnline.cc provides confortable and easy way to order drugs online including drugs free shipping.

A hormonal male contraceptive would work by artificially raising the level of testosterone in the blood, thereby tricking the pituitary gland into thinking that plenty of sperm has been made, causing it to turn off the testes’ sperm production. As a result, the number of sperm in the body drops, and the chances of an egg being fertilized after sex are reduced.

Studies indicate that, if they reach the market, male hormonal contraceptives will lower sperm counts to less than 1 million sperm per milliliter, the threshold that defines male infertility, thereby far surpassing condoms and even the female pill in its reliability. In clinical trials, men have regained normal sperm counts within six months of terminating the treatment. Despite the possibilities, researchers predict that whether or not men will seize this new control over their fertility will depend on how the hormones are administered.

As with hormone treatments for women, there are many options for how to get the drug into the body. At the moment, researchers are experimenting with injections, a daily pill, and a temporary hormone-releasing implant placed just beneath the skin. It remains unclear, however, which would be most effective.

In addition, increasing testosterone levels can cause some of the same negative side effects that women who use birth control commonly endure, such as acne and weight gain. A marketed version of hormone treatment for men will likely include a combined dose of progestogen and testosterone in order to balance out potential side effects.

So it’s true, a hormonal birth control for men is closer than ever to being a reality, but men, don’t get out of the tub just yet.

Posted by toshko under Ortho Evra News | Comments (0)