Birth control advocate has profound effect

Dr Oliver Lynn — a Drogheda vasectomist — reports on the recent conference in Dublin to launch Ceravette and the address by Prof John Guillebaud

There is nothing more pro-life than family planning. That’s according to John Guillebaud, Emeritus Professor of Family Planning and Reproductive Health, UCL, at the launch of Cerazette recently in Dublin.
Professor Guillebaud is well known to the family planning fraternity here. He has been lecturing here on almost an annual basis since 1979 (I first heard of him in 1985). He has had a profound effect on my life and on my work. This year he is celebrating 40 years as a vasectomist in Oxford.
I would rate him as one of the best speakers I have ever heard. His passion, authority, eloquence, humour and mastery of technology leads to a very powerful presentation. To top that, he has a wonderful speaking voice. “What an amazing technology family planning is,” he said, “It was invented just in the nick of time to save the planet.”
However he is disappointed that his message isn’t having more of an effect with governments, planners, organisations, etc. Medical science has engineered the technology to enhance and prolong life, i.e. death control.
Birth control
We also have developed wonderful contraceptive technology, such as birth control, but unless it is used wisely and widely, the planet is under threat!
He reminded us that there are now 15 methods of contraception (‘to have orgasms without having babies’) and we as health professionals must help our patients to choose wisely a method tailored to suit their needs.
He reminds us that the planet gets an additional 80 million people per year (approximately the population of of Germany) and this is simply not sustainable!
What does he say about Cerazette, the new Progestogen-only pill (POP) contraceptive pill – but not so new really because it has been available for the last seven years on the UK market and has about 20 – 25 per cent of the oral contraceptive market. He says: “Cerazette is safer medically that the combined pill: safer contraceptively than the old POP.” He says it is easier to take than the combined pill and there is no pill-free interval. Put simply, the regime is a lot simpler than the old pill; you just take a pill every day.
To adapt an old proverb: “A pill a day keeps the baby away.”
The pill free interval
On reflection the pill-free interval with the combined pill was a mistake – put in by pioneering gynaecologist John Rock, who incidentally was a staunch Catholic. He hoped that this regime would be acceptable to the Pope in the late 1960s. It wasn’t, and Rock’s religious fervour declined! Lengthening the pill-free interval in the combined oral contraceptive pill is the commonest cause of contraceptive failure.
So what are the other advantages of Cerazette? Well, it can be taken during breast-feeding and can be continued when breast-feeding is finished.
It is a simple regime for teens, although the long acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) such as Implanon, Mirena, and Depo nuvaring, he feels, are better for them.
He sees Cerazette as a bridge between the combined oral contraceptive and the LARCs. There is no interaction with antibiotics, and a script can be given for a year. It has no impact on blood pressure. He cautions with the use of enzyme inducers (St John’s Wort being particularly enzyme inducible).
He also cautions doctors about guidance to patients – emphasising the need to tell patients that the pill must be taken every day. Breast cancer is a no-no, as is migraine with aura!
He says ‘sex is hot but contraception is cold’. He certainly heats up contraception in a way that challenges us to take this very serious subject even more seriously every time I hear him. Family Planning is a serious business. He has made it his life’s purpose to promote family planning and to help save the planet.
Family planning
He maintains that ‘family planning can bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other technology’.
What a great impact he has made on us in Ireland. He has brought forward our thinking and persuaded us that ‘there is nothing more pro-life than family planning’.