Talk:Oral contraceptive

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[edit] "inhibit normal fertility"

re:

  • 21:42, 9 August 2007 Lyrl (Numerous forms of birth control prevent conception - spermicides, barriers, fertility awareness, etc. Oral contraceptives are somewhat unique in that they inhibit fertility.)

Oral contraceptives are not somewhat unique in that they "inhibit fertility".
Numerous forms of birth control "inhibit fertility" by "preventing conception": spermicides, barriers, fertility awareness, etc.

The phrase "inhibit normal fertility" is not used as part of a definition of oral contraceptives in any reliable source.
The phrase "inhibit normal fertility" and the word "chemicals" are POV terminology added by 214.13.4.151.

After warming up with some POV edits to the Abortion article, 214.13.4.151 turned their attention to the Oral contraceptive article.

214.13.4.151's first edit of the Oral contraceptive article was to change:

Female oral contraceptives, colloquially known as the Pill, are the most common form of pharmaceutical contraception, the prevention of unwanted pregnancy. They consist of a pill that women take daily and that contains doses of synthetic hormones (always a progestin and most often also an estrogen).

to:

Female oral contraceptives, colloquially known as the Pill, are the most common form of pharmaceutical contraception, taken primarily to disable an otherwise healthy female reproductive system, in order to avoid the natural consequence of sexual intercourse pregnancy. They consist of a pill that women take daily and that contains doses of synthetic (unorganic) hormones (almost always a progestin derived from horse urine, and most often also an estrogen).

Two days later, 214.13.4.151 began a series of POV edits to the opening sentence of the Oral contraceptive article.
A new opening sentence of the Oral contraceptive article had been hastily added by Tarquin over two years prior with an edit summary "rough fenition, please improve" (in response to an edit 12 minutes earlier by The Epopt, who apparently thought the article should begin with two inaccurate sentences about non-existent male oral contraceptives and a link to gossypol); this opening sentence was tweaked a year later by Viajero:

Oral contraceptives, colloquially known as the Pill, are the most common form of pharmaceutical contraception, the prevention of unwanted pregnancy.
Male oral contraceptives remain a subject of research and development, and are not available widely (if at all) to the public. Studies continue of various alternatives, such as gossypol.
Oral contraceptives are contraceptives which are taken orally, and act on the body's fertility by chemical means.
Oral contraceptives are contraceptives which are taken orally and inhibit the body's fertility by chemical means.


Oral contraceptives are medications taken by mouth that are designed to prevent conception, (except for ormeloxifene, a medication only available in India that is said by its developers to be the only anti-implantation agent in the world approved for clinical use).

  • Stedman's Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing, Illustrated, 5th ed. (2005). ISBN 0781744261
    • oral contraceptive - A medication taken by mouth designed to prevent conception.
  • Lakha F, Ho PC, Van der Spuy ZM, Dada K, Elton R, Glasier AF, Critchley HO, Williams AR, Baird DT (2007). A novel estrogen-free oral contraceptive pill for women: multicentre, double-blind, randomized controlled trial of mifepristone and progestogen-only pill (levonorgestrel). Hum Reprod PMID 17609247
    • In low daily doses, mifepristone has been shown to inhibit ovulation by suppressing the pre-ovulatory surge of LH and acting directly on the endometrium to induce amenorrhoea in the majority of women.


Male oral contraceptives do not currently exist.

  • "currently experimental" is misleading - there are currently no human trials of (or human experiments involving) male oral contraceptives.

BC07 09:46, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

My main desire to use the shorter definition on this page is because it's shorter. I don't see the need to get into the mechanism of action of a birth control method available only in India at the top of a disambiguation page. It may be distracting to users just trying to figure out how to get to progestogen only pill. Any suggestions for alternative concise headings? LyrlTalk C 02:09, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
To avoid the ambiguity of calling these substances contraceptives or methods of avoiding pregnancy (since different groups define conception and the beginning of pregnancy different ways) we could define them as "birth control". How about:
Oral contraceptives are medications taken by mouth for the purpose of birth control.
I still think the "inhibit fertility" wording read more smoothly, but I think something like the above sentence would work. I look forward to hearing others' thoughts. LyrlTalk C 22:35, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] This is not an appropriate disambiguation page

See WP:DISAMBIG#Deciding to disambiguate:

Deciding to disambiguate

Ask yourself: When a reader enters a given term in the Wikipedia search box and pushes "Go", what article would they most likely be expecting to view as a result? For example, when someone looks up Joker, would they expect to find information on comedians? On a card? On Batman's nemesis? On the hit song or album by The Steve Miller Band? When there is risk of confusion, the page for an ambiguous term should have a way to take the reader to any of the reasonable possibilities for that term; either the top of the page should have one or more disambiguation links, or the page itself should be a disambiguation page.

Or in this case:

Ask yourself:
When a reader enters a given term in the Wikipedia search box and pushes "Go",
what article would they most likely be expecting to view as a result?
For example, when someone looks up oral contraceptive, would they expect to find information
on the Pill ? (used by 99.8% of oral contraceptive users in the U.S.; by 80% of oral contraceptive users in Britain)
On the minipill ? (used by 0.2% of oral contraceptive users in the U.S.; by 20% of oral contraceptive users in Britain)
On Centchroman ? (used by 0% of oral contraceptive users in the U.S.; by 0% of oral contraceptive users in Britain; not mentioned in any WHO international contraception guideline or handbook; not mentioned in any contraception, gynecology, or endocrinology medical reference book)
On RU-486 ? (used by 0% of oral contraceptive users in the world; not mentioned as a contraceptive in any WHO international contraception guideline or handbook; not mentioned as a contraceptive in any contraception, gynecology, or endocrinology medical reference book)
On a nonexistent male oral contraceptive ? (used by 0% of oral contraceptive users in the world; not mentioned in any WHO international contraception guideline or handbook; not mentioned in any contraception, gynecology, or endocrinology medical reference book)

BC07 06:34, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

I'm sure the vast majority of readers entering "oral contraceptive" have one of two expectations:
Readers with expectation #1 will be disappointed by this page, readers with expectation #2 will get what they were looking for (prominent links to both the COCP and POP articles). And while we have a disambiguation page for COCP and POP, it does no harm to add less common and experimental methods. There are a few links within Wikipedia that refer to these small minority methods: the James R. Flynn article talks about a theoretical oral contraceptive (wikilinked) that could be added to a city's water supply, and mifepristone has a link to this page.
If most readers have expectation #1, I can see an argument for making this location a redirect to the COCP article, moving this page to Oral contraceptive (disambiguation) and adding a hatnote to that new page to the top of the COCP article. That would make for two hatnotes on the COCP article, which clutters it up a little. I don't see an overall benefit to this move, but wouldn't object strongly if others editors express support for it. LyrlTalk C 23:03, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Perspective

This article is sorely lacking in any kind of historical, social or political perspective. It's a stub, at best. 74.1.90.194 19:50, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

I believe it's supposed to be a disambig. Kuronue 21:49, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
It should certainly be an article in its own right, particularly if oral contraceptives are (as some claim) one of the most used medicines in history.217.149.150.2 (talk) 12:24, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
It is the combined oral contraceptive pill that is one of the most used medicines in history.--Grahame (talk) 13:23, 9 April 2008 (UTC)