Few Doctors Recommend Natural Contraception
Most doctors who see women about contraceptive concerns underestimate the effectiveness of natural family planning options and rarely or never mention them. A recent survey asked doctors how often they discuss two natural "rhythm" methods for preventing pregnancy: the cervical mucus method and the symptothermal method.
Using the mucus method, a woman monitors her vaginal discharge, which increases and becomes more watery just before an egg is released. She should stop having intercourse when the amount of mucus starts to increase and not start again until at least 4 days after she observes the greatest amount.
Using the symptothermal method, a woman determines when an egg has been released by monitoring her vaginal discharge and also by taking her temperature each morning while she is still in bed. The temperature falls slightly before an egg is released and rises slightly after the egg is released. The woman also stays alert for other symptoms of egg release, such as slight cramping pain.
Overall, fewer than half of the doctors said that they mention the temperature method or the mucus method at least sometimes when discussing contraception with their patients. Forty percent said that they sometimes discuss the mucus method, and 54% said that they sometimes discuss the symptothermal method. In addition, the doctors underestimated the effectiveness of natural family planning. Only 22% knew that the best possible effectiveness of the two "rhythm" methods is greater than 90%, and only one third knew that the typical effectiveness is greater than 70%.
Many physicians seem to lack up-to-date information on natural family planning. Often, what they think they know is wrong is based on old or outdated information. Natural family planning has important advantages for many patients.
These include low cost, lack of side effects, education of women about their bodies, shared responsibility between female and male partners for family planning issues, and compatibility with religious or philosophical values of those who might not wish to use various contraceptive technologies. The methods can also help couples identify the best times to have intercourse, when the woman is most fertile.
Obstetrics & Gynecology November 1999;94:672-678.
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Lemons for Birth Control?
After investigating traditional contraceptive techniques, an eminent Australian-based scientist has proved that lemon juice diluted five to one with water kills HIV and sperm within seconds.
Roger Short's findings will be made public in a scientific paper read at The Ninth International Symposium on Spermatology at the University of the Western Cape next week.
Symposium convener Professor Gerhard van der Horst is excited by the discovery of a cheap, universally available, non-technical way to block HIV transmission, and describes Short's paper as "a milestone".
A woman whose husband insists on "nyama to nyama" can protect herself against HIV transmission with a small sponge and watered-down lemon juice, perhaps leaving him none the wiser. Men may also anoint themselves with the acidic juice to prevent transmission.
The abstract of the paper says: "Historically, lemon juice on a sponge, or half a lemon placed over the cervix, was widely used as an effective contraceptive. We have shown that 20% lemon juice (final concentration) in human semen irreversibly immobilises 100% of sperm in less than 30 seconds. A similar concentration also rapidly inactivates HIV. Thus intra-vaginal lemon juice might provide a cheap, readily available and extremely effective way of stopping the sexual transmission of HIV, whilst also providing contraception."
The paper refers to additional strategies, including circumcision for men, which more than halves the risk of HIV infection. The virus appears to enter the penis via specific HIV-receptive Langerhans cells on the inner surface of the foreskin. The vagina has its own Langerhans cells that are also the main entry point for HIV in women.
Thickening the vaginal epithelium by estrogen administration could provide cheap, safe and effective HIV protection for women, but drug firms are not interested, says Short.
Based at the University of Melbourne, Short is also professor-at-large at Cornell University in the United States, and a visiting fellow of Green College, Oxford. His career began in England at Cambridge in 1956. He was co-editor and principal author of the eight-volume Reproduction in Mammals published by Cambridge University Press from 1972 onward, which was translated into six languages.
The lemon juice breakthrough is not the first scientific bombshell he has lobbed. He was part of the Cambridge University team that crossed a camel with a llama in Dubai. He also co-authored a physiological study presenting strong evidence that the elephant was an aquatic mammal in an earlier evolutionary phase. He has published more than 300 scientific papers and, with Dr Malcolm Potts, wrote a bestseller aimed at the layman: Ever Since Adam and Eve: The Evolution of Human Sexuality (1999).
Short's interest in the transmission of HIV infection arose naturally from his research activities of the past 20 years, which focused on contraception, the evolution of human reproduction and the causes of the Earth's overpopulation.
All Africa.Com October 4, 2002
