Beware the pill.

Toronto -- The magazine Alive, distributed free in drug stores, includes an article in its October 2003 issue on the dangers inherent in taking the birth-control pill. Entitled The contraceptive conundrum, it lists common side-effects, including nausea, headaches, vomiting, weight gain, vaginal or bladder infections and, the most serious of all, abnormal blood clotting. Blood clots associated with those who take the pill occur in the veins of the legs and are called thromboembolisms, from which some women experience ongoing health problems, and three percent of women die. The risk of a blood clot can also be temporarily increased by a long flight, childbirth, bad varicose veins, some blood disorders and being overweight.

A recent article in the medical periodical The Lancet (April 5, 2003) reports that the risk of cervical cancer increases the longer you take the pill. Those with the common sexually transmitted disease human papillomavirus, who take the pill for 5 years, are three times more likely to develop cervical cancer, and the pill does not protect against STDs. A researcher at the National Cancer Institute also reports that taking the pill for 5 years or more increases estrogen levels in the body; this is associated with breast cancer.

One fact that the medical profession refuses to publish and which Alive also does not mention is that, in many cases, the pill acts as an abortifacient in preventing the fertilized egg from implanting in the walls of the uterus and thus causing the fetus to be aborted.

The author lists the birth-control options available to women. At the top of the list is abstinence at 100% effectiveness. Right beneath it is fertility awareness methods (also called natural family planning), where a woman determines her fertile days and abstains from sex during that time; this method has a 75-99% effectiveness. The pill, with its dangers and cautions, is listed at 95-99.9% effectiveness.