New Birth Control Pill Provide Contraception For A Month
Researchers estimate that 9% of women in the United States who use the birth control pill become pregnant each year.
An unintended pregnancy can be a life-altering event for anyone.
In the developing world, as elsewhere, it can prevent a woman from supporting herself and her family, as well as pursuing educational opportunities.
Taking a pill once a month is more convenient than taking one every day. New research introduces and tests a monthly pill in pigs.
A new study introduces a monthly birth control pill.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that 214 million Trusted Source women of reproductive age who want to avoid pregnancy do not use modern contraception methods.
Some believe that the inconvenience of using oral contraception on a daily basis is contributing to the problem. The authors of the new study believe that a monthly pill will be more appealing.
According to co-lead author Ameya Kirtane, Ph.D. of The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, developing a monthly contraceptive drug has the potential to significantly improve global health. Oral contraceptives have a significant impact on human health and gender equality. Furthermore, the new system may be capable of delivering more than just contraceptives.
Prof. Robert Langer of MIT, a co-senior author, hopes that this study, the first of its kind, will pave the way for new treatment options for women's health and other conditions.
The study's other senior author is Giovanni Traverso, Ph.D., a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Tiffany Hua, a former technical associate at MIT, serves as the other lead author.
The monthly contraceptive pill consists of six rigid arms, each containing multiple doses of levonorgestrel.
The arms are made of carefully selected polymer materials that take approximately 4 weeks to degrade in the presence of stomach acid.
The polymer arms gradually release the contraceptive into the stomach and bloodstream over the course of a month.
A rubbery hub in the centre of the pill allows the gelatin-coated, star-shaped structure to be folded and inserted into a swallowable capsule.
When stomach acid digests the gelatin, the star unfolds, expanding to a size that allows it to remain in the stomach and deliver its medicine without passing through the digestive system.
The researchers are still testing conditions that would cause the arms to break off, such as changes in pH or temperature, as well as exposure to specific chemicals.
Testing the new pill on pigs
Tests on this pill have yielded promising results in pigs.
According to the authors, the contraceptive was released at a consistent rate over about 28 days, and the amount of the drug detectable in the pigs' bloodstreams was roughly equivalent to that of a human taking daily levonorgestrel pills.
While the drug level from a daily tablet decreases over 24 hours, the level produced by the new pill remains constant for nearly a month.
