Health hazards of oral contraceptives

Contraceptive pills ("the Pill") prevents pregnancy by altering the hormonal balance and it is this alteration that produces the many side effects. Some are minor and easily cured; others are serious and permanent. In pregnancy the vascular system of the body adjusts to accommodate a rapidly enlarging uterus. In the false pregnancy induced by the Pill the pelvic vascular system has an increased blood supply but there is no enlarging uterus to utilize this increase. In pregnancy the blood is altered and becomes more coagulable. This helps to promote easy clotting at the site of placental separation and so reduce the amount of bleeding following childbirth. The Pill duplicates the hyper-coagulable state, which makes the patient prone to intravascular thrombosis and stroke. The Pill raises the level of serum cholesterol and triglyceride, thus increasing the likelihood of coronary disease. The Pill has also been associated with migraine, severe emotional disturbance, reduced libido, cancers of the breast, cervix and liver; and minor side-effects such as thrush infections, nausea, breast tenderness, irregular bleeding, skin pigmentation, jaundice, weight gain, fluid retention, raised blood pressure, kidney disease, depression, urinary tract infection, inability to wear contact lenses, worsening of asthma, epilepsy, gall-bladder disease and raised blood sugar.