WHY YOU DO NOT NEED TO TAKE A BREAK EACH MONTH

THE traditional seven-day break recommended between Pill packs, during which time a withdrawal bleed mimicking menstruation occurs, is too long and should be ‘consigned to history’, according to research published in the journal BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health last year.

‘There was never any medical reason,’ says Professor John Guillebaud, one of the study’s authors. ‘The Pill’s inventor, John Rock, hoped it would seem more natural so the Pope would accept it as a method of contraception; it was also designed to reassure women they weren’t pregnant.’

The researchers found that the seven-day break was long enough for the ovaries to start functioning again, increasing the risk of pregnancy.

In theory, taking the Pill continuously instead also means a lower dose of synthetic oestrogen would be needed to keep the ovaries suppressed — poten

tially a third of that currently taken by most women on the Pill. This could lead to fewer sideeffects. Blood clots are estimated to affect between five and 12 women in every 10,000 taking the combined pill, compared to two in 10,000 women not taking hormonal contraception. ‘Oestrogen is the main culprit that’s linked with problems such as clots,’ says Professor Guillebaud.

‘You could probably get a Pill that had only 10mcg of oestrogen, rather than 20mcg, the lowest available at the moment in this country,’ he says. (The two most commonly prescribed pills in the UK, Microgynon and Rigevidon, contain 30mcg of synthetic oestrogen.)

Although guidelines were updated to reflect the new thinking about the Pill break, the message has been slow to filter through to GPs and pharmacists, says Professor Guillebaud.