Oral Contraceptive In Restricted Use

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30553, 23 September 1964, Page 14

Oral Contraceptive In Restricted Use

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, Sept. 22. Hopes that the oral, contraceptive would prove the answer to the world’s population problem are now fading, according to Mr G. C. Liggins, senior lecturer in obstetrics and gynaecology at the post-graduate school at the National Women’s Hospital.

Mr Liggins, who was giving the annual British Medical Association lecture to the Auckland Institute and Museum, said there was good evidence to show that “the pill” was highly acceptable in highly civilised communities.

One manufacturer in America sold three million packs a month, while in New Zealand at least 50,000 women were using oral ■ contraception and an effect was showing on the birth rate. But the pill had failed to catch on in under-developed countries, where the population explosion was most acute.

Instead of answering the world’s population problem, it seemed the effect of oral contraceptives was likely to be an exaggeration of the disparities in population growth rates which already existed.

The tremendous public interest in oral contraception meant that people today were “ovulation conscious.”

Mr Liggins said rapid improvements were being made in the pill, and one could assume that a fully effective pill free from all danger and side effects, would be available before long.