Sex hormones: inexpensive pills to poor women
Astrup, N.
Sygeplejersken 88(11): 20-21
1988
ISSN/ISBN: 0106-8350 PMID: 3388228 Document Number: 363631
The medical community in India is engaged in a strident debate on wither the sale of pills containing a high dose of the female sex hormones estrogen and progesterone should be forbidden by law. During the '50s and '60s pills with a high dose of estrogen and progesterone were used in the industrial nations as a means of pregnancy tests. The failure of a woman with delayed menses to respond to administration of a high dose of these hormones in a few days was an indication of pregnancy. Eventually evidence accumulated that use of these pills during the early stages of pregnancy caused malformations of the fetus, particularly hydrocephalus. In most countries sale of these pills was forbidden or at least subjected to strong controls. Today, however, sales continue in a large part of the Third World, which accounts for 87% of all estrogen and progesterone preparations in the world. Studies in southern India show that among women who have delivered malformed children, 31% had taken hormone pills during the first 3 months of pregnancy. In 1982 the Indian department of health forbade the sale of high dose combinations of estrogen and progesterone but gave manufacturers a half year to cease production and a year to cease sales. The manufacturers appealed the ruling to the Indian supreme court and sales have continued as hearings proceeded through the legal system. The deciding factor, however, is one of price. A urine pregnancy test is quicker and completely harmless but a urine tests costs $4-$5 while the pills cost less than $1.