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Werkstuk Biologie Vissen aan de pil
Table of contents
Introduction
History of the pill
The pill
What is the contraceptive pill?
How to use the contraceptive pill
How does the contraceptive pill works?
What does the hormone oestrogen do?
What does the hormone progesterone?
The chemicals added to the pill in Microgynon 30ђ:
Estrogen and its effect on the environment
Natural hormones
Chemical hormones
The pill and its effect on fish and water animals
The future Pill
Results of this inquiry
Effect of new pill on environment
Effects of new pill on economy
No new pill
Who did what?
Sources
Introduction
This project is about the contraception pill and about its effects on humans and animals.
The pill has a lot of advantages, but also disadvantages, while a lot of people dont know
that. What are the disadvantages of the pill? This project will explain how the pill
works, will tell what the disadvantages of the pill are and will give solutions. But first of
all, some history about the pill.
History of the pill
In 1919 people did research on contraception methods. They discovered, by using
female rabbits, that adding extra hormones in an animalҒs body will disturb the balance
and they would become unfertile. Later they also discovered this had the same affect by
female humans and they would also become unfertile. There was only one problem.
Where did they have to get the hormones? They needed to be taken out of a human
body, which is why they were really expensive, so not many women could enjoy this
new invention. However, in 1939 an American found the solution and succeeded to
make chemical hormones that had exactly the same effects on women. In 1956 it finally
happened, Gregory Pincus had invented a pill to be swallowed by women and they
wouldnt become pregnant anymore. But still, this pill wasnҒt right. Women got dizzy,
felt sick and got a headache. Pincus worked further with his invention. He put less
hormones in the pill (in the first pills were as many hormones as now in a half box) and
in 1960 the pill could finally be bought in the Americans shops, and was available for
everybody. Nowadays, there are many kinds of pills available, so every woman will find
one that will best fit her.
The pill
What is the contraceptive pill?
The contraceptive pill is a pill you have to swallow to prevent pregnancy. Of course you
also have other contraceptive products but the contraceptive pill is the best method to
prevent pregnancy.
The pill is only for women. When they have sex with men and she doesnt want to get
pregnant she has to swallow the pill. The pill doesnҒt stop venereal diseases, though a
lot of people think it is. The contraceptive pill is for 99% reliable.
How to use the contraceptive pill
It is important to take the pill on the same time of the day. If you dont the pill canҒt do
its job and you cant forget it easily. You take the pill for three weeks. After those three
weeks you do not swallow the pill for one week. This week is called the ґstop-week.
This week is when your menstruation has to take place. When you swallow the pill the
amount of blood you loose if very less and maybe nothing, it depends on the person.
Even in this week you are protected against pregnancy.
After this ґstop-week you have to start a new strip of contraceptive pills. These strips
consist of 21 pills. And you have to swallow them again for three weeks until you have
reached your Ғstop-week and the whole process starts all over again.
How does the contraceptive pill works?
De chemicals that do the job in the contraceptive pill are hormones. They are quit
similar to the hormones that are made in the ovaries of a woman, oestrogen and
progesterone. These chemicals take care of a cycle every month; they make sure that an
egg cell is released every month, which is called the ovulation. Oestrogen and
progesterone also take care of the menstruation of a woman. When the egg cell isnҒt
fertilised by male sperm, the chemicals estrogen and progesterone notice that and they
will break down the womb mucous membrane, which is the actual menstruation.
The hormones in the pill work the opposite. They let the brain think that there is no egg
cell released. Then the egg cell cant be fertilised so you canҒt get pregnant if there
because there is no real egg cell.
(See number 2 on the picture last page.) The hormones also have an effect on the womb
mucous membrane. The womb mucous membrane is made on such a way that an egg
cell cant get into the membrane to settle. (See number 3 on the picture) The mucus in
the womb wall gets thicker, so when you have sex, it gets more difficult for sperm cells
to get through. (See number 1 on the picture)
Those effects make the pill very reliable. But the pill has also effects that are not so nice
to have. The pill can give a strange effect on some women. These effect are caused by
the hormones that are added to you body. These effects occur mostly when you have
just started using the pill, which is because your body has to get used to the extra
hormones. These effects are:
-Sensitive breasts
-Headache
-mood changes
-Sickness
-Sudden increasing weight
There are also effects that are more severe. Some women can get thrombosis, a blood
clot and vein. But those effects only occur by 1 from the 5000 women that use the
contraceptive pill.
Medicines for epilepsy and different antibiotics can make the pill less reliable because
the chemicals mixed with those from the pill donҒt work well together.
What does the hormone oestrogen do?
The Oestrogen hormones develop during the puberty, the primary and the secondary
sexual characteristics and take care of continuing these characteristics by adults.
Oestrogen is usually called a women hormone because it has an important function by
developing sexual characteristics, the control of the menstrual cycle and by pregnancy.
Estrogen is also found in a men his body. What the function of oestrogen is in a mans
body isnҒt clear yet.
Oestrogen is produced by the ovaries. They have an important role in developing the
growth of the womb, vagina and breasts. Oestrogen is also important for the producing
of cervix which is a mucus that take care of the lifetime of sperm seeds that can enter
the vagina.
What does the hormone progesterone?
The yellow body (corpus lucium) in the ovary and the placenta releases the hormone
progesterone. The working of the hormone is really in the womb where the glands in the
womb wall are forced to secretion. Against the end of the monthly cycle from the
women decreases the amount of oestrogen and progesterone chemicals in the blood,
which causes menstruation.
The chemicals added to the pill in Microgynon 30ђ:
Every pill consist of a small amount of 2 different female hormones: 0,150 mg
levonorgestrel (a hormone which works like progesterone) and 0,030 mg
enthinylestradiol (a hormone which works like oestrogen).
Anti-conception pills that consist of 2 hormones are called combination-pillsђ. Because
of the little amount of hormones in this contraceptive pill, this pill is a light pill.
Because both hormones in every pill of the strip have the same combination this pill its
called a one-faze pill.
Estrogen and its effect on the environment
A lot of people donҒt realise what kind of effects the pill has on nature. Fish are
becoming bisexual, gulls in California lay more eggs then normally and become
lesbians and in the North female polar beers are born with penises. Even snakes are
behaving differently than normalӔ in the North Sea. What causes all these things to
happen? Answer: there appear to be too much estrogens (female hormones which are
mostly made by the ovaries) in our rivers. There are two sorts of estrogens present in
our rivers, natural and chemical ones, but which of those is the most harmful for the
environment?
Natural hormones
Every year, in Belgium, between 2 and 3 tons natural hormones from humans and
animals land in the environment in the form of urine and shit (stools). The natural
estrogens that land, through the sewerage, in the sewage treatment plant are almost
totally broken down in the 24 hours that the sewage stays there. This means that it are
not the natural hormones that cause any problems for the environment as these natural
hormones are naturally broken down easily by the environment itself. Therefore it must
be the other estrogens that are the most harmful for the environment.
Chemical hormones
As you know, a lot of women all over the world swallows the pill to prevent to become
pregnant. Hormones come in the female body through the pill and do their job, but after
that, they have not disappeared all a sudden. The hormones are still in the female body
and, like natural hormones, also come out the body through urine. This urine, containing
the endocrine disrupters (the hormones that are present in the pill) also goes to the
sewage treatment plant by going through the sewerage. But in contrast to natural
hormones these hormones are not broken down in 24. It will take 21 days to brake down
these hormones coming from the pill and this is exactly why these hormones are so
harmful for the environment. The sewage treatment plant can not stop the endocrine
disrupters from entering the environment, so what needs to be done in the future to stop
these hormones from destroying the world? Every day 50 grams of endocrine disrupters
land in the environment of Belgium. On the first side this seems almost nothing, but
these 50 grams a day cause dramatically effects on the environment.
The pill and its effect on fish and water animals
Endocrine disrupters (xeno- or pseudo-estrogen in Dutch) are hormones or chemicals
that are made by humans and damage the environment. For instance the hormones
estrogen and progestogen are endocrine disrupters. When there is spoken about estrogen
and progestogen in this chapter, the artificial hormones (endocrine disrupters) are
meant. The hormones, which are in the contraception pill and harm the environment, are
progestogen and estrogen.
The endocrine disrupters in the contraception pill are the estrogen and progestogen. The
estrogen causes the male fish to turn into female fish and the progestogen causes the
female fish not to get pregnant and the male fish not to produce sperm cells anymore.
In the Netherlands 80% of the women uses the contraception pill for various reasons.
Everyday the whole Netherlands, full of women using the pill, only produces 50 grams
of artificial estrogen coming from the pill. But even less than a nanogram
(0.0000000001 gram) of estrogen could have effect!
When the hormones are dissolved in the surface water fish take them in, causing the
male fish to manufacture proteins (vitellogenine) in the liver, something that normally
only female fish do. The male fish also start to manufacture not only sperm cells, but
also egg cells. They are becoming hermaphrodite (both male and female) and later turn
into female fish. When the hormones are taken in by the fish the progestogen causes the
female fish not to get pregnant anymore (just like what happens with women) and the
estrogen causes the male fish to turn into female fish. In the end, there will only be
female fish that cant get pregnant anymore, which will lead to new threatened species.
In some rivers in Great Britain all fish are female. One-tenth of the fish that have been
used for research was unfertile and one-forth had problems with sperm production. So
many fish have had a sex change, which is definite. They wonҒt have a sex change back
again, not even when theyre put into clean water again. In some rivers there is as much
female hormone present as in a woman, which is about 200 times as much as in clean
water.
Though the artificial estrogen causes male fish to become female, also female fish turn
into male. The estrogen does not cause this as many people think. It is caused by other
hormones coming from plants (sitosterol and stigmastanol). These hormones come in
the water near factories where paper is produced. This is because these two hormones
are also in wood pulp and they are released in the environment (so also in the water)
after production.
From the eighties on, there is done a lot of research to the effect of the endocrine
disrupters in our environment with different results. But it is not proved yet that they
really damage nature, because the sex change can also have other causes. That is why
this is such a hard subject to study. Nothing is really proved, but there is strong evidence
that this theory is right.
In the Great Lakes in North America there is far less population of water animals
compared to years before (when the pill wasnҒt popular yet or not even invented). The
male water animals suffer on infertility, development disturbances and sex change.
Cleaning the Lakes is inefficient. The endocrine disrupters stay effective. Even in the
Everglades in Florida (USA) there is a sex change of crocodiles and turtles. Now the
larger animals are also affected which can lead to more and more threatened species.
Of course we, humans, eat these fish and the results of research say that even humans
have fertility problems by eating the fish.
The amount of unfertile men, the amount of men with testicle cancer and the rate of
breast cancer under women all increaseӔ, says Frank Comhaire, professor on the
University of Gent (Belgium) that has done and still does a lot of research on this kind
of problems.
The future Pill
The contraception pill causes a lot of problems for nature. Artificial hormones get into
the rivers and fish take up these artificial hormones which were in the pill causing that
male fish become female. This happens not only to fish, but also alligators or frogs like
probably mentioned in the chapters before. Even seals become definitely infertile by
eating the fish that had taken up the artificial hormones. This way it could effects the
whole animal and human population; humans because we eat animals that might have
eaten the artificial hormones through other animals. There must be found a
contraception pill that does not contain artificial hormones or/and other consistencies
but will still prevent human woman from becoming pregnant. This pill has been formed
by, for example the Gent University by Frank Comhaire.
A bomb for the environment!Ӕ Thats what the GentҒs professor said about the
contraception pill, the most women friendly invention ever. "The urine of women that
take the pill is full of artificial estrogen that flows through our waterworks into the
rivers. The waterworks-stations can hardly do anything to stop this hormone. River fish
take up this hormone causing whole populations to feminize (becoming female). On
people this hormone has a different effect: we get fertility problems". Some
waterworks-stations like Aquafin have done research themselves and are aware of the
problem. The feminizing of the animal world is a fact. If a solution wouldnӒt be found,
the whole world could become female! is the shocking conclusion.
Results of this inquiry
Although results are not found on the Internet, I conclude the following: The future pill
should not contain artificial estrogen and progestogen.
To form the perfect pill I think we should use a plant found in the rainforest of Mexico.
The roots contain the basic elements of the contraception pill. In the 40s the chemicus
Dr. Russel E. Marker by chance found out that the molecule structures of the plant
named the ԑWild Yam correspond with the animal and human hormones, which are also
needed in the contraception pill. Women in Mexico have eaten this plant for years to
prevent becoming pregnant. So instead of using artificial estrogen and progestogen,
these Wild Yam molecules should be used instead. Loads of progestagon can be
produced from this plant material. They have the exact same effect on woman not to
become pregnant. Since these molecules are not artificial but natural they can be taken
out by the waterworks-stations. Many problems as mentioned before will be avoided by
making this change.
Effects of new pill on environment
This new invention will be great of course, but it will also have a great effect on nature.
People see this change on nature either as a good or a bad change. Male-fish wouldnҒt
be changed into female anymore; so much more male fish will be suddenly in the rivers.
This also means that the fish population will rise (No more fish become female so fish
will be able to breed more, leading to a higher fish population). Not only the fish
population will change, but also other animals will not become infertile anymore by
eating the fish. Like mentioned above; the seals. Seals eat the fish that had taken in the
artificial estrogen and those seals became infertile because of this hormone in the fish.
These seals will always stay infertile. Except that other seal populations will be able to
grow and grow.
Also, female fish will not become infertile anymore. Breeding is able to work again and
fish populations will rise even more.
Effects of new pill on economy
This new pill is more expensive than the ordinary pill. The government has to spend a
part of their money on the import of these plants from Mexico. Not only in this situation
things get more expensive. To buy this pill the price will have gone up. Users of this
new pill will have less money left to spend on other things they need. It could happen
that people would walk away from this product because its becoming too expensive. It
is not clear how much the price will go up, so things can not be said for sure. This is
possibility though!
Fish supply will increase near the waterworks-stations. Just there because that is where
the fish were being affected by the hormones. This does not necessarily mean that the
supply will increase on the market.
No new pill
Some people donҒt want a new pill to come on the market. They have their pill that fits
them and they dont want to change. These things just happen. In this case another
measure has to be taken: people must minimize their use. For example: only teenagers
use the pill. Usually only teenagers are the victims of sex-abuse or raping. By using the
pill they will be protected. Adults can just use condoms. At least this way less artificial
estrogen and progestogen get into our waterworks. These hormones will affect less fish.
These fish will affect less other animals. The process of feminizing will slow down, but
it will not be enough. It could have a major impact on the worldҒs future. Since this isnt
a problem many people know about it could grow quickly without noticing.