Combined Oral Contraceptive Pills
All contain an estrogen, ethinyl estradiol or mestranol (the inactive 3-methyl ether of ethinyl estradiol, which must be metabolized by the liver into the active ethinyl estradiol; 50 µg of mestranol is equivalent to only 35 µg of ethinyl estradiol and should not be used when high-dose estrogen pills are needed; mestranol was the estrogen used in the first oral contraceptive, Enovid), although in varying amounts, and one of a number of different progestogens. They are usually taken for 21 days with then a seven-day gap during which a withdrawal bleed (often, but incorrectly, referred to as a menstrual period) occurs. These differ in the amount of estrogen given, and whether they are monophasic (only one dose of estrogen and progestogen during the 21 days) or multiphasic (varying doses). The introduction of extended-cycle monophasic pills (i.e. Seasonale) has shown that the withdrawal bleeding intervals can be decreased.
Read more about this topic: Oral Contraceptive Formulations
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