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Discussion
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Let me start by saying that I’m turning 50 in a few days, so, short of a National Inquirer-style medical miracle, I probably don’t need birth control to not become pregnant. However, I do have this pesky condition called Adenomyosis that has caused me to bleed heavily for months at a time – it’s similar to endometriosis, but is confined to the uterus. Quick and dirty version — due to the effects of estrogen, the uterine lining grows out of control into the surrounding muscle, and it’s not a good time for anybody.
In my research about my condition, someone (on Reddit, I believe) mentioned that women were having a lot of success treating it with the once-a-week non-hormonal Indian birth control pill. Brand name: Saheli. Uhhhh… what? There’s a once-a-week birth control pill? Yeah, right. We would know about it. No, there is is. And it’s non-hormonal. We just don’t have prescription access to it in the US.
Apparently this pill is so well-received in India (where it’s now been used for 30 years), the government makes it available for free for any woman who wants it under a differed name, Chhaya (gee, can you imagine that, in our current political climate? Free birth control?) I was floored. I’d never heard of this. The pill itself (generic name: Centchroman) is an estrogen blocker to the uterus only — does not affect other areas of the body (edit: yes, it does) – but it is not, in itself, a hormone. It’s taken twice a week for the first 3 months, then once a week there after. The only reported side effects are delayed or absent periods (but there may be others). It also works as a (very effective) morning after pill.
Wow. Why don’t my daughters have this option? Why don’t any of us? Would FDA-approval be SO hard in the US for a drug that has been used safely in another country for 30 years? Apparently so. I guess there’s simply not enough money in it, or women’s health isn’t very important to the powers that be in this country. Or more likely, it’s too much power in the hands of women — power over our bodies that they don’t want us to have. I feel so… angry and frustrated. I never tolerated the estrogen/progesterone pill well during my younger years and would have loved to have this as an option.
Anyway, sorry for the book. I am not a medical professional of any kind, and do not have the authority to recommend this pill to anyone. I do, however, encourage you to research on your own about it. The netflix series Sex Explained (episode title: Birth Control) mentions Saheli and the mechanism by which it works. It is NOT FDA approved in the United States, however, it is available through some sources as a “supplement” – again, not recommending, but knowledge is power. I’m certainly going to share this info with my daughters, and want as many women as possible to know every option we have, despite the powers trying so hard to limit them.
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Edit: While Saheli (Ormeloxifene) is described in several places online as having “no side effects” – there is definite potential for there to be some side effects (both good and bad), just different ones from the estrogen/progesterone combination pill. Thank you to all who have shared your thoughts and experiences, I will definitely be sharing mine with this treatment. I’ve discovered there is subreddit about this drug (not created by me) — but here it is for more info/experiences: [https://www.reddit.com/r/SaheliBirthControl/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaheliBirthControl/)
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Thanks for the Reddit Gold, kind stranger!
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I learned about a birth control method today that makes me angry…
updated 11 months ago
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Ormeloxifene (Centchroman, Saheli) affects estrogen uptake throughout the body (not just the uterus), decreasing uptake in some organs and increasing it in others. It’s not free of side effects.
It’s not approved in the US because the manufacturer has never requested approval from the FDA. The approval process is time-consuming and the required testing is expensive — I assume that the manufacturer didn’t think that it was profitable to do it.
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Just had a hysterectomy after a decade of dealing with fibroids and adenomyosis. Healing up from major fucking surgery and discovering that there was an alternative is a right kick in the teeth for sure. Medicine for profit is evil and everyone who makes money from denying effective drugs to maximize profits deserves very bad things.
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I had this condition and tried all the hormones under the sun. The only thing that helped was a hysterectomy. It used to feel like I had a crampy, lead weight in my pelvis before I had it done. Sadly, everything else is a bandaid.
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I’m in a very, *very* privileged situation of being with a 100% employee-owned company where people aren’t scumbags. Back before Roe v Wade was overturned (but you could tell that’s where things were headed), the company said “Oh, no no no. This won’t stand. We’re making birth control *free* now” and renegotiated benefits with our insurance provider to give all employees and their immediate family access to birth control at no charge.
Consider birth control is literally the only thing keeping my endometriosis from taking over my interior organs like some kind of Resident Evil virus, I’m incredibly grateful. But I believe it should be universally free for *everyone*, regardless of location or employment status. It’s infuriating knowing so many people can’t access birth control!
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>The pill itself (generic name: Centchroman) is an estrogen blocker to the uterus only — does not affect other areas of the body
[It does, though.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ormeloxifene)
> In some parts of the body, its action is estrogenic (e.g., bones), in other parts of the body, its action is antiestrogenic (e.g., uterus, breasts).
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In the US its chemical name is ormeloxifene and I found this about it: “In all that time, however, ormeloxifene has never been available in the US because no company has risked taking the drug through the FDA’s regulatory gauntlet.” https://www.nature.com/articles/nm0510-506#:~:text=In%20all%20that%20time%2C%20however,through%20the%20FDA's%20regulatory%20gauntlet.
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I’m an American and I’ve been taking Saheli for 15 years. My only side effect is that I get a period maaaaaybe once every couple years. (I think I’m on year 4 of no periods right now, knock wood.) I order my supply 18 months at a time from an online Indian pharmacy and it costs me around $20, plus another $25 for shipping.
I’ve told a lot of my girlfriends about it and the ones that have made the switch report zero regrets.
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I’ve never heard of this supplement either, but it doesn’t surprise me that something proven safe & effective in another country has been ignored in the US. Mefipristone (sp?) was used in Europe for a few decades before the FDA would even consider it. And now that it’s been approved and used here for 20 years, some appointed judge with an agenda is trying to void its use in the entire country.
My gynecologist is from India. I will ask her about this at my next appointment in a few weeks.
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India might get a lot of crap for having such a high poverty rate for a huge population of their country but the doctors that I’ve met from India are REALLY good at their jobs
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It is less effective than the combined progesterone-oestrogen pill though.
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Awww, thanks for the award, u/MuseofDreams – you’re awesome 😌❤️🍄
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I currently have about 8 years on my Copper IUD because hormonal BC makes me a miserable crazy person. My previously light period are torrential, I have horrible cramps every month (whereas in the past I’d get them once in a blue moon) and as I’m sure you’ve all read countless times on Reddit, the insertion process was an absolute horrorshow.
If this had been an option I would have *leapt* at the chance to try it before putting myself through this.
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I’m just putting this out there, but you may in fact live in a shit-hole country.
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Legislation is slow to act but 30 years is pretty long, but I still support the FDA by and large.
My dad is a snake oil salesman and been trying to sell “cures” to covid from India in the American market.
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Welcome to TIL the method I gave my uterus having characters in my star wars fanfic (more or less) exists.
I have also never heard about it here in Germany.
Don’t know if it is legal to get this in Germany/ the EU.
