Researcher finds strong link between contraception and HIV

[buffalo]

Researcher finds strong link between contraception and HIV

Front Royal, Va., Apr 23, 2010 / 01:04 am (CNA).- A researcher reported earlier this week that there is a strong scientific link between hormonal contraceptives and a woman’s risk of contracting AIDS/HIV.
Joan Robinson, a researcher at the Population Research Institution, said that although over 50 medical studies to date show the link between the two, the scientific consensus has received little to no media coverage due to the economic and ideological force behind contraception.
“The science is settled,” Robinson says. “Hormonal contraceptives – the oral pill and Depo-Provera – increase almost all known risk factors for HIV, from upping a woman’s risk of infection, to increasing the replication of the HIV virus, to speeding the debilitating and deadly progression of the disease,” reports Robinson in her article, titled “The Pill’s Deadly affair with HIV/AIDS.”
Robinson explained on the PRI website Tuesday that hormonal contraceptives boost the number of specific cells in women which HIV uses to infect and proliferate in the body. According to the researcher, hormonal contraceptives also create an “ideal” site for HIV infection on the surface of a woman’s uterus, eliminate the natural pH acid protection against infection and cause the fragile cervical tissue to grow beyond its natural bounds and replace what would normally be thick, protective membrane. Additionally, said Robinson, hormonal contraception can cause vaginal dryness which makes the environment susceptible to tears and abrasions, creating fertile sites for infection.

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[Lutheranteach]

Ummmm…it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that women who are on the pill are often having sex, could it?

 

[Brooklyn]

Ummmm…it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that women who are on the pill are often having sex, could it?

That may tangentially be true, but what this article says is that the contraception so changes the chemistry of the body that the body becomes a natural breeding ground for HIV. Of course, you will never see this on the MSM, just as they will never do any stories about the connection between abortion and breast cancer.

The Catholic Church has always spoken out against artificial contraception and abortion because both destroy human life, the highest form of God’s creation and the reason Christ came to earth and died. Now science has proven that even if you don’t buy into the great spiritual truths of the harm caused by these anti-life measures, doing these things will literally kill you.

God bless the Catholic Church for remaining true.

 

[Dale_M]

The headline of the CNA article is misleading. The researcher herself uses a different headline, and for good reason… the connection between artificial contraception and HIV is poorly understood and somewhat speculative. Even the meta-analysis (from 1999, which is ancient by HIV research standards) which she claims is the best study available, states that the relationship between oral contraceptives and HIV is weak.
journals.lww.com/jaids/Fulltext/1999/05010/Risk_of_HIV_Infection_in_Oral_Contraceptive_Pill.7.aspx

More modern studies (which she cites) have found an association between hormonal contraception and HIV, but those researchers also mention in their conclusions that more research is needed (which she doesn’t cite.)

Joan Robinson’s article is a literature review. It is not original research. And her credentials are unknown. She seems to also write about climate change and about demographics. Prior articles posted online indicate she is Assistant Editor at Population Research Institute, an organization which is opposed to artificial contraception. I think we need to view her article in that light: her article is an editorial written in support of the PRI mission.