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Kenyan women have been warned against using a Chinese oral contraceptive pill that was banned 10 years ago and slowly found its way back into the market as it is harmful to their health.
The manager of the Ministry of Health’s National Family Planning Programme, Albert Ndwiga, said there does not exist a family planning method where you take a pill once a month.
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Citizen TV reported the drug, Sophia, has since made its way back into the market, touted as a natural herbal product with no side effects.
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However, samples collected and tested by the Ministry of Health showed that the product is toxic and severely impacts the user.
Results from an analysis done by the National Quality Control Laboratory that led to the banning of the pill 10 years ago found it had abnormally high levels of the hormones levonorgestrel.
Quinestrol, the active ingredient in conventional contraceptive pills was also found in the pills.
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From the results issued by the Kenya Pharmacy and Poisons Board, the pill contains 40 times the recommended level of levonorgestrel and quinestrol.
Also, the pills contained as much as 3000mcg of estradiol, 100 times more than the recommended dosage. The recommended daily pill contains 30mcg.
The results found varying amounts of the active ingredients, with some pills being of no value. Excess estradiol, which is an analog of estrogen, poses the risk of blood clots and heart disease.
Children born to women who have been on this pill present with early mammary glands and uterus enlargement and develop into men faster for the males.
Babies who are breastfeeding are also exposed to the chemicals in the drug and carry the risk of developing secondary sexual features.
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According to marketing literature, the pill, which is designed to resist immediate attack by stomach acids, remains in the stomach for weeks, slowly releasing hormones to prevent pregnancy.
In a related story, TUKO.co.ke reported scientists announced that a non-hormonal oral male contraceptive was 99% effective at preventing pregnancy in mice with no observed side effects.
Abdullah al Noman from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and his colleagues gave male mice a daily dose of a molecule called YCT529 over four weeks and found that their spermatozoon count plummeted.
After the mice stopped receiving the drug two weeks later, they could reproduce normally again with no observable side effects.
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Noman and his colleagues licensed their drug to a private company, YourChoice Therapeutics, which plans to conduct human trials this year.
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