Birth control—meant to be protection but could have generational
and environmental repercussions. 62% of women at the reproductive age in the
United States claim to use some form of contraception, and of that population,
27%, or 10.2 million women, claim to use the pill method. A widely praised, and
obviously popular, method for contraception and balancing hormones is seemingly
harmless, however the basic ingredients prove to have various dangerous
complications, as with any substance that alters the body. These synthetic
hormones need to pass through the digestive system without being denatured by
the acidic environment, thus meaning they wind up as waste products; these waste
products eventually end up in the ecosystem and can therefore cause
unintentional implications in any living organism that may digest it second
hand.
Women who consume hormonal birth control first hand might
not seem to have any lingering implications, however studies have shown an
increase in difficulty getting pregnant or sterility altogether after ceasing
use. In 1966, Barbara Seaman commented on the pill’s ability to disrupt menstruation
cycles in women either making them irregular or nonexistent altogether. In her book,
The Doctor’s Case Against The Pill,
she also introduced reader’s to a theory known as “oversuppression syndrome,”
coined by Dr. M. James Whitelaw, in where the underuse causes atrophy and thus damage
to the lining in the uterus. He also concluded this rate of infertility to have
increased 10% due to the use of hormonal birth control. Dr. Roy Hertz built off
Dr. M James Whitelaw’s claims saying hormonal birth control could damage the
endometrium microscopically and increase the possibility of atrophy and cancer.
The endocrine system in the human body is very specific and reactive, so even
the smallest amounts of synthetic hormones could disrupt it and the production
of the natural hormone.
Second hand digestion also has caused a variety of
implications. As formerly stated, these synthetic hormones will eventually end
up as waste products and invade the water supply; this invasion renders all living
organisms susceptible to consumption. Ethinyl estradiol, an active substance in
this form of contraception, mimics estrogen, but has 100x stronger of an effect
than that of the natural hormone. That being said, Canadian researchers conducted
a study in 2007 to analyze the effects of this chemical on aquatic animals;
they estimated the level of waste product that would invade the environment and
concluded that this hormone caused a “near extinction” of the fathead minnow
population since the Ethinyl estradiol feminized the male fish. Effects also
reached green frogs and mink frogs. Similarly, the United States Geological Survey
found that 80% of male bass living in the Shenandoah and Monocacy Rivers were
beginning to grow eggs. Obviously, the invasion of this chemical has
detrimental effects on the environment and can even cause extinction of certain
populations thus radically altering the diversity and ecosystem.
Contraceptive devices are valuable, and should continue
to be an option, however the side effects must be considered and combated to
prevent any consequential changes in the environment. There are two routes to
be considered to fix this problem: increasing the advertisement of non-hormonal
contraception or bettering the sewage system to remove the Ethinyl estradiol from
entering the water source. The first option should be the most cost effective,
however it still has a variety of challenges facing it. Cost effectiveness and accessibility
are the number one things contributing to the popularity of the oral
contraceptive device; other methods are either inaccessible or are not cost
effective for women. The latter option is harder to enforce and less cost
effective as the technology and sewage systems would have to be updated. Either
way, these studies provide evidence of the detrimental effects these synthetic
hormones have on the environment, and it is something that needs to be
addressed sooner rather than later.
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