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Between 2020 and 2021, contraceptive shortages in the Americas caused 1.7 million unplanned pregnancies and thousands of maternal and child deaths. These drugs offer the possibility of saving and allowing desired lives to be lived, but they also generate a lot of mistrust.
Deciding whether or not to have children, how many and how, is possible, in large part, due to the existence of a wide variety of contraceptive methods. There are the well-known barrier methods, such as condoms; irreversible methods, such as vasectomy or tubal ligation, and finally hormonal methods, ranging from daily pills to subcutaneous implants or IUDs.
However, access to these methods is not universal. According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), between 2020 and 2021 there were unmet needs for contraceptives between 14 and 17.7% in the Americas. This shortage had direct consequences on the life and health of many women and people with the ability to gestate: 1.7 million unplanned pregnancies, for example. In addition, the lack of contraceptives also triggered the death of 2,700 pregnant women and 38,000 boys and girls.
The main reason behind this shortage was the interruption of many health services due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but other reasons continue to hinder access to contraceptives persistently, such as stigma, price, lack of sexual education or the distance from health centers and pharmacies.
Real or unfounded mistrust?
Hormonal contraceptives have side effects: altering the menstrual cycle to prevent the egg from being generated and thus avoid pregnancy can affect the appearance of acne, for example, or the way our body retains fluid, giving the sensation of that get fat Some women report mood changes when taking the medication, as hormones regulate how we feel, although scientific studies have not yet found conclusive evidence that this link occurs.
However, as has happened on many other occasions, the symptoms, ailments or effects of contraceptive methods tend to be disregarded when they affect women. In addition, hormonal medications are often used to treat other problems such as menstrual cramps, while many women argue that the solution to these pains lies in more research and treatment, and not in the use of contraceptives.
These ways of approaching contraceptives have contributed to generating distrust around these hormonal drugs and to increasing some existing myths, such as that these drugs cause long-term infertility. Although it is true that the body may need a couple of months to recover its normal cycle when stopping treatment, it is completely false that fertility is affected beyond that.
There is also particular concern that the pill could cause cancer. There are studies that record a slight increased risk of breast cancer and cervical cancer in people who take or took contraceptives. At the same time, more scientific literature finds that it decreases the risk of endometrial cancer or colorectal cancer.
In this sense, it is key to remember that the figures indicate correlation, but not necessarily causality. In other words, they show us that people who took contraceptives had a higher risk of cancer, but they do not necessarily explain that the cause of the risk was hormonal treatments.
A clear example is the case of cervical cancer, caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). One of the theories that would explain the increased risk is that people stop using condoms, the only contraceptive that also prevents sexually transmitted diseases, while taking the pill.
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