Back in the 1960’s a male pill was trialed along with THE pill for women. Dr Ellen Grant, one of the researchers, wrote a book in 1985 called ‘The Bitter Pill’.
She recorded that …“women were seldom asked about side effects such as headaches, depression or anxiety.” Grant notes that, “there is a tendency to dismiss women’s various complaints as biased. Often women were not asked directly about possible symptoms as this might put the idea into their heads.”
“While we were preparing to add some of the unpleasant effects, women encountered, to our first published results, we were told that we were emphasising the negative aspects of the drug when its benefits were overwhelming”.
Consequently, the first report in the BMJ in 1962 reported the benefits without mentioning the problems. Grant’s male medical colleagues had advised, “don’t publish it unless you have something better to offer”. Grant says, “that women were complaining of full-blown classical migraine, of loss of interest in love-making, of depression”.
It is now known that the Pill increases the risk of coronary artery disease, breast cancer and high blood pressure. the side-effects include nausea, vomiting, migraine-type headaches, breast tenderness, weight increases, changes in sex-drive, depression, blood clots and increased incidence of vaginitis.
Also, women with a history of epilepsy, migraine, asthma or heart disease may find that their symptoms worsen. Many of these effects may persist long after the discontinuation of the Pill."
The reason that the “male pill” was dropped back then was that a male subject had a reported shrinkage in his testicles. When several women died, however, the reaction was to change to chemicle mixture of the Pill.
That is what p***ed off Dr Ellen Grant.
That is not the end of he saga…
