Women protest against dangerous drugs
A campaign group has been formed in Bombay to protest against the
Drug-controller of India approving NET-EN as a contraceptive.
Two companies, Unichem and German Remedies, have been given licences to manufacture this drug. The following statement was issued by five women's groups to protest against this.
A World Health Organization report on ICs in 1982 says that the majority of women on ICs have their menstrual cycle disrupted. In fact, a significant number of women stop having their periods only to have severe bleeding after injections are withdrawn while others bleed every day of the month while on the drug. But everyone concerned seems to feel that it is a minor side-effect. For Indian women, who hold the world record for anaemia, it is a very, very significant side-effect.
There is far less information available about NET-EN on human metabolism, on infants exposed to them through breast milk or about their carcinogenic properties. No one seems to know why the majority of women on these drugs suffer from menstrual chaos. Nor do they know why these women put on weight without more nutrition or why they are depressed. Women's bodies -women's right to decide
Yet the advocates of ICs consider them an ideal form of contraception. Their favourite phrase is risk-benefit ratio. According to them, if the benefit outweighs risk, the drug should be used.
But the risks are taken only by women. The benefits are mainly for the pharmaceutical companies, the population control experts and the governments of third world countries.
There is a lot that is wrong with our family planning policies. It is always our families and their plans. A beginning must be made somewhere to correct them. Let's start with the newest strategy which is about to be imposed on the masses of Indian women. Let's struggle against the inundation of this country with ICs.
The demands of the campaign are:
- Ban all long-acting contraceptives and withdraw approval for NET-EN.
- Make public all studies in India on Depo-provera and NET-EN immediately.
Stop experimenting on third world women with hazardous drugs and contraceptives.
- Institute a public enquiry on the controversial injectable and implanted contraceptives.
Join us in our struggle for a better deal for our women!
Campaign group against long-acting contraceptines
Forum Against Oppression of Women
Women's Centre, Bombay Medico-friends' Cir Stree Mukti Sanghana Strep Mukti S. Sangharsh Vahini
DOCUMENT
What are injectable contraceptives (IC)? ICs prevent pregnancy more or less in the same way as oral contraceptives.
But they are administered by injection and are long-acting. The best-known ones are Depo-provera and NET-EN. Depoprovera needs only one injection every three months and NET-EN, one every two months.
Population control enthusiasts consider injectables the ideal form of contraception for women in the third world because of the ease with which they can be administered on a mass scale and the low failure rate. To those who look at women in the third world as nothing but faceless factors to be considered in any strategy of population control they cook up, the benefits seem overwhelming and the 'risks' in terms of women's health negligible. There has been a concerted campaign lately to 'sell' the idea of ICs through the media and elsewhere. Women used as pawns in the imperialist game
Depo-provera has been the centre of a fight between health groups and women's groups on the one side and Pharmaceutical companies on the other since the 1960s, when the Upjohn Company of the USA sought approval for it. Upjohn has fought a hard and long battle in the US, unsuccessfully. They desperately wanted approval before their exclusive rights on the drug expired. The campaigns in the US and elsewhere brought Depo-provera a 'bad name'
Approval for its manufacture has not been given by the Drug-controller of India. But neither has any explanation been given to the public or to interested groups about why it has not been approved. Meanwhile, NET-EN, another IC about which not much is known, has been approved in India and a licence to manufacture it has been granted to two companies - Unichem and German Remedies.
Both Depo-provera and NET-EN have been used in India for several years now for research purposes. This research has for research mensac been carried out mainly on poor women International Viewpoint 11 March 1985 by voluntary agencies who conduct community health programmes, under the supervision of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The reports of the studies have not been published till today and ICMR has refused to make it available to anyone. All interested parties are supposed to take their word for it that while Depo-provera is not so good, NET-EN is just fine.
Past experience with contraceptives and other drugs does not inspire in us any such trust or confidence. We believe that we have a right to know the details of the research studies, to make our own investigations and to come to our own conclusions. We do not consider the mason of vol masses of women mere pawns in population control strategies to whom contraceptives are 'sold' on the basis of incentives without proper information.
What we do know about ICs is quite disturbing. Upjohn Company conducted two animal safety studies in the 1960s, a seven year one on beagle dogs and a ten year one on monkeys. Within three and a half years of the dog study, all dogs on high doses and half on low doses were dead due to inflammation of the uterine lining. (The two on low doses who survived had their uteruses removed.)
All control dogs survived except one which died of bite wounds and four which were sacrificed by the researchers. The dogs also developed cancer of the breasts, drug-induced diabetes and various other problems. At this point, Upjohn declared that beagle dogs were not the ideal animals to judge risks to human females.
Later, even the monkey studies in which cancer of the uterus occured were said to be 'irrelevant to human experience. The history of this controversy has been marked with disinformation and a desperate desire on the part of the company to maximise profits without making sure first that the drug is safe.
Breast cancer, two types of uterine cancer, serious menstrual disturbances and masculinisation of female foetuses are some of the serious effects of Depoprovera. Others are depression, decreased libido, nausea, dizziness, weight gain (without any increase in nutrition), etc.
SALVADOR