Many people are asking, “Is the abortion pill safe for me?” Planned Parenthood and abortion clinics declare the abortion pill, RU486-Mifepristone-Mifeprex, is a safe and efficient procedure. The procedure using the abortion pill is simply described in two sessions of treatments, where the woman ingests the RU486 abortion pill in the physician’s office. Two days later the woman takes another medication called Misoprostal-Cytotec, which causes the uterine walls to contract expelling the pregnancy tissue. The second session uses doses of Methotrexate. One week later, another dosage of Misoprostal is given causing more uterine contractions to expel the pregnancy tissue.
The clinics and Planned Parenthood call the aborted substance pregnancy tissue, while the rest of the medical community considers it an embryo up to sixty days old. After two months, it is considered a fetus. There is a success rate of 65% in aborting the embryo when RU486 is used alone. Misoprostal-Cytotec is given, causing strong painful uterine contractions to expel the dead embryo. Using the two medications together increases the success rate to 95%. Fifteen percent of the women need to go through the surgical procedure of a D&C, dilation and curettage to scrape out the remaining embryonic tissue from the uterus or risk bleeding to death.

The compound mifepristone or RU-486 works by blocking the sex hormone progesterone, which feeds the growth of certain cancers. The Science study on mice suggests the chemical would be most effective in women genetically prone to the cancers. By the age of 70, more than half of women with a faulty BRCA1 gene will develop breast or ovarian cancer.

Hormone block

Mifepristone is designed to abort pregnancy in its first three months by blocking the action of progesterone and ending the life of the foetus.

In smaller doses, it is also used as an emergency contraceptive - stopping a foetus developing in the first days after intercourse.

Professor Eva Lee, from the University of California at Irvine, and colleagues studied genetically engineered mice lacking the BRCA1 gene.

They found that mammary glands in the mice accumulated large numbers of progesterone receptors - molecules that allow progesterone to exert its effects.
When progesterone attached itself to the receptors, it appeared to encourage abnormal cell growth.

By eight months of age, all the mice had developed tumours.

But similar mice treated with mifepristone had not developed tumours, even after a year.

Mifepristone, also known as RU486 or ‘the abortion pill’, is a drug that induces miscarriage if taken in the first three months of pregnancy. It can also be used as emergency contraception following unprotected sex. RU486 offers a safe, reliable and non-surgical means of abortion.
RU486 is not currently available in Australia for the purposes of inducing abortion. It is available in about 33 countries, mainly in Europe.

Most abortions in Australia are performed using what is called suction aspiration. The woman’s cervix is dilated (stretched open) and a tube is inserted into the uterus to vacuum out the foetus and placenta. Afterwards the uterus is scraped with a special instrument (curette) to make sure that no products of conception remain. This is known as a ‘surgical abortion’.

Some women should not take RU486

RU486 isn’t recommended for all women who would like an abortion. The procedure may be unsuitable for:

• Smokers aged 35 years or older
• Women with certain medical conditions such as heart disease, asthma, diabetes, bleeding problems or hypertension
• Patients taking long-term steroid medications or blood-thinning medications
• Ectopic pregnancy
• Pregnancies more than about nine weeks gestation
• Women who have experienced prior allergic reactions to drugs containing mifepristone
• Women fitted with an intra-uterine device (the IUD must be surgically removed before taking RU486).

The newest pill, Yasmin, is the latest low-dose birth control pill. Similar to Alesse, Loestrin, and Cyclessa, this pill is 99% effective when taken correctly and helps decrease the amount of PMS water retention. As with all hormonal methods, you increase your risk of heart attacks and blood clots. Each pack costs fewer amounts a month and is available by prescription at Health Services.

A woman still goes through menopause even if she is taking birth control pills. But she may not know it.

Menopause occurs naturally when your ovaries stop making estrogen and progesterone. Eventually your menstrual periods stop, and you can no longer become pregnant. Signs and symptoms of decreased production of estrogen and progesterone include hot flashes, sleep disturbances and vaginal dryness.

A menopausal woman taking birth control pills continues to get enough estrogen and progestin from the pills and will not realize her ovaries are no longer making these hormones. Her periods will continue, although she can no longer get pregnant. Menstruation occurs during the placebo week of the pill regimen. And she may have no symptoms of menopause because the pill continues to deliver more than adequate amounts of estrogen and progestin.

If you are taking the pill and are older than age 50, consider stopping oral contraceptive use. Discuss with your doctor how you can determine whether menopause has occurred and what alternatives there are for contraception if you still need it. When you no longer need contraception, hormone therapy is a better option for managing uncomfortable menopausal vasomotor symptoms, including hot flashes.

The effects of antibiotics on birth control pills may be overstated — except in the case of one antibiotic, rifampin. Studies clearly show that rifampin decreases the effectiveness of birth control pills in preventing ovulation. However, rifampin isn’t a widely used antibiotic. Chances are you wouldn’t be taking it unless you had tuberculosis or had tested positive for the disease.

Hypothetically speaking, other antibiotics, particularly penicillin and tetracycline derivatives, could impair the effectiveness of birth control pills. However, no large studies have proved such an effect.

Researchers can’t rule out the possibility that a small percentage of women may experience decreased effectiveness of birth control pills while taking an antibiotic. And if you’re taking a newer, extremely low-dose oral contraceptive, you could be more susceptible to these potential effects from antibiotics. If you’re concerned, consider using a barrier method of contraception for the duration of your antibiotic prescription.

For the purpose of dating the pregnancy — estimating when you ovulated and when your baby is due — it’s somewhat advantageous to have at least one normal period before conceiving.

In the past, doctors had concerns that if you conceived immediately after stopping the pill, you had a higher risk of miscarriage. However, these concerns have proved to be largely unfounded.

If you plan to wait a few months, use a backup form of birth control while your menstrual cycles get back to normal

One of the advantages of the birth control pill is that it’s quickly reversible. After you stop taking the pill, you may have only a two-week delay before you ovulate again. Your period would follow about four to six weeks after you take the last pill.

Once ovulation resumes, you can become pregnant. If this happens during your first cycle off the pill, you may not have a period at all. However, although possible, this scenario isn’t likely.

It’s possible to prevent your period with continuous use of any birth control pill. This means skipping the placebo pills and starting right away on a new pack. Some evidence suggests an advantage to this type of pill regimen. By continuously taking the pill, you prevent hormonal fluctuations that are responsible for bleeding, cramping, headaches and other discomforts associated with getting your period. However, you’re at greater risk of breakthrough bleeding — bleeding between periods. Continuous use of your birth control pills works best if you’re taking a monophasic pill — with the same hormone dose in the three weeks of active pills. If you’re taking a triphasic pill — with a different hormone dose each week of the active pill phase — using them continuously carries a much higher rate of breakthrough bleeding.

You may find continuous use of birth control pills a convenient way to avoid having your period during an important occasion or trip. Taking a monthly regimen birth control pill continuously is fine for about three months, but then you should plan on taking the placebo pills so that you’ll have a menstrual cycle

Traditional birth control pills make your reproductive system mimic a regular 28-day monthly cycle. For the first 21 days, you take active pills containing reproductive hormones. For the last seven days, you take a placebo. While you’re taking the placebo pills, you bleed vaginally, as if you were having a regular menstrual period.

By contrast, extended-cycle birth control pills contain active hormones for every day of the month. The newest extended-cycle regimen, Lybrel, is a low-dose pill that’s designed to be taken continuously for one year, with no breaks for hormone-free intervals. Lybrel is meant to suppress all menstrual bleeding.

Two other specially designed, extended-cycle pill regimens — Seasonale and Seasonique — are also currently on the market. With both pills, you take active hormone pills every day for three months, then you take one week of placebo pills (Seasonale) or low-dose estrogen pills (Seasonique). You’ll experience menstrual bleeding during that week.