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pubmed:otherAbstract |
PIP: This article reviews the fates of various contraceptive methods since the modern era of contraception began in the 1950s. The recent experience with IUDs shows how easy it is to lose an existing method. Spermicides may be next. The pill, used by some 9-10 million American couples, looks firmly entrenched. Yet pill scares seem as enduring as the method: 2 of the most recent link oral contraceptives with increased vulnerability to AIDS and with breast cancer in women who took the pill prior to a 1st birth. Such scares could always endanger the availability of this product. The widespread concern about the AIDS epidemic represents both an opportunity for and a challenge to contraceptive development. Priorities in contraceptive research need to be reexamined to include methods that can deal simultaneously with unintended pregnancy and AIDS, as well as with less lethal sexually transmitted diseases. None of the new methods high in the research and development pipeline meet these criteria. The bright side of the picture is the number of promising leads for birth control methods that could be developed if there were adequate funding and if some of the other barriers to development were removed. Finally, the general public, health professionals, legislators and consumer and women's groups need a great deal of education on these issues.
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