Controlling Fertility

Most women in relationships want to have control over when they become pregnant. They want to continue to have sex but do not want to have a baby.

One type of contraceptive is "the pill". If a woman takes regular doses of oestrogen this will continually send a message to the pituitary gland to stop producing F.S.H. Without F.S.H. the instruction to start maturing an egg will never be received so the woman should not get pregnant. There are side effects to the pill and any woman should be aware of these before starting to take the pill.

There are a lot of women who have been trying to have a baby for many years but without success. It may be that their ovaries are not being instructed to produce eggs properly.

They can be helped by giving them lots of F.S.H. which will instruct their ovaries to mature eggs. This will obviously increase her chances of becoming pregnant. Women who have had this treatment often have twins or even triplets. Why? This treatment is expensive and doesn't always work.

REMEMBER

• The uses of hormones in controlling fertility include:
− giving oral contraceptives which contain hormones to inhibit FSH production so that no eggs mature
− giving FSH as a fertility drug to a woman whose own level of FSH is too low to stimulate eggs to mature.