Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday December 11 2019, @01:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the how-long-is-a-month? dept.

Submitted via IRC for chromas

A Once-a-Month Birth Control Pill Is Coming

Unless, that is, you embed them in a flexible silicon ninja star that folds up neatly into pill form.

That's the solution a team led by scientists at Brigham and Women's Hospital and MIT came up with about five years ago. Back then they were building slow-release pills designed to deliver treatments for malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV. But in a scientific first, they've now demonstrated that the same invention can also deliver a steady drip of contraceptive hormones in the body of a pig for up to 29 days.

"From an engineering aspect, the key novelty is the ability to deliver a drug for a month after a single ingestion event," says Giovanni Traverso, a gastroenterologist and biomedical engineer at Brigham and Women's and MIT, who co-authored the new study, published today in Science Translational Medicine. The proof-of-concept experiments were conducted late last year. Since then, the long-lasting contraceptive has begun to be commercially developed by a Boston-area company called Lyndra Therapeutics, which Traverso cofounded with MIT bioengineer Robert Langer in 2015. In July, the startup received $13 million from the Gates Foundation to advance the monthly pill to human trials, with a focus on bringing it to low- and middle-income countries.

A once-a-month oral contraceptive, Science Translational Medicine (DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aay2602)


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Pslytely Psycho on Wednesday December 11 2019, @05:44PM (3 children)

    by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Wednesday December 11 2019, @05:44PM (#931142)

    The original pill trials had no trouble attracting participants and were performed in Puerto Rico to avoid anti-contraceptive laws in Massachusetts and the difficulty of keeping track of the subjects, making the isolated island the perfect place to conduct the studies.

    Participants had to meet four criteria:
    They had to be in good health.
    They had to be under 40.
    They had to have had at least two children — to prove they were fertile.
    And they had to agree to have a child if they became pregnant during the study

    Of course in a world with reasonably effective contraception and informed consent regulations, finding qualified test subjects will be more difficult. Optionally they could pay participants, or seek out participants in parts of the country where healthcare is poorest. I don't believe places with restrictive abortion bans also ban contraceptive use (but who knows anymore!) so there may be a rich pool of volunteers in places like Kentucky, Alabama and the like. People who either can't afford or have limited access to contraceptives.

    All non-medically implanted contraceptives (placed in a clinical setting, IUD, Implants, injections) currently have failure rates greater than 4%.

    Intrauterine Contraception

    Copper T intrauterine device (IUD)-failure rate: 0.8%
    Levonorgestrel intrauterine system (LNG IUD)-failure rate: 0.1-0.4%

    Hormonal Methods

    Implant-failure rate: 0.01%
    Injection or “shot”-failure rate: 4%
    Combined oral contraceptives-failure rate: 7%
    Progestin only pill-failure rate: 7%
    Patch-failure rate: 7%
    Hormonal vaginal contraceptive ring-failure rate: 7%

    Barrier Methods

    Diaphragm or cervical cap failure rate for the diaphragm: 17%
    Sponge-failure rate: 14% for women who have never had a baby and 27% for women who have had a baby
    Male condom failure rate: 13%
    Female condom-failure rate: 21%
    Spermicides-failure rate: 21%

    So as long as they can keep the failure rate around or less than 7% they should be good. After all, all contraceptive measures could be flown under the banner of 'Baby Maybe.'
    The Rhythm Method could be called 'by the wombfull.' Since we know how bad the average person is with math...(average failure rate 24% per year)
    :)

    Sources:

    https://www.plannedparenthood.org/files/1514/3518/7100/Pill_History_FactSheet.pdf [plannedparenthood.org]

    https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/contraception/index.htm [cdc.gov]

    https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/rhythm-method/about/pac-20390918 [mayoclinic.org]

    --
    Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Zinho on Wednesday December 11 2019, @07:12PM (2 children)

    by Zinho (759) on Wednesday December 11 2019, @07:12PM (#931173)

    Reminder for the casual reader about how the "failure rate" is measured:

    7 conceptions per year per 100 couples exclusively using that method for the entire year = 7% failure rate

    If the failure rate were on a per-use basis then 7% would be entirely unacceptable for the majority of couples.

    Also note that much of the higher failure rates for barrier/spermicide methods is due to inconsistent use of the method, i.e. "Yes, we have a box of condoms on our nightstand, and we have been using them all year except that one time when we were just caught up in the moment." Apparently, ~21% of couples using condoms have at least one "caught up in the moment" event per year, because plastic barriers are kind of impermeable when they're in the right place.

    --
    "Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
    • (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Wednesday December 11 2019, @07:48PM

      by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Wednesday December 11 2019, @07:48PM (#931196)

      Thank you for adding that explanation. I had not thought about explaining the nature of such.
      One note I got from reading the entire transcripts was about condoms. Using non-water soluble lubricants (oils) can cause condoms to break down, causing both breakage and permeability. I would also expect some level of defects, (not cited in the articles, personal opinion) even if very slight.

      --
      Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 11 2019, @11:44PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 11 2019, @11:44PM (#931266)

      You described "typical use" measurement. There is also the "perfect use" metric, which tries to control for that and to make sure the technique is correctly used (e.g. fertility awareness not measuring the same time everyday or putting condoms on incorrectly). The problem with both measurements is that people provide false information: not mentioning that they both use a condom and withdraw, saying they use a condom every time when they don't, following proper diaphragm timing protocols, etc. In one study I read after going down that rabbit hole, they found that people misreported various measures more than half the time. In the case of the pill, they found that almost 80% of respondents misreported data enough to significantly affect their individual fertility from the reported data, and a large percentage misreported the sexual activities (both amount and type) they participated in.