Abstract
Since the 1960s, contraceptive pills have been at the service of humanity. They are one of the innovations that have contributed the most to the changing role of women in society and to women achieving the role they play today. Combined oral contraceptives (COCs) opened up opportunities to increase knowledge about the effects of estrogens and progestins in the female organism. The overall results of this evolution were progestin-only contraceptives in general and estrogen-free oral contraceptives as progestin-only pills (POPs) in particular. To identify the position currently held by POPs, a bibliographic review was carried out in the following databases: PubMed, ScienceDirect, EBSCOhost, OvidSP, Embase, and SciELO in Spanish. POPs have evolved notably from restricted use only during breastfeeding to a broader context. The absence of estrogen in the pill currently offers more advantages than disadvantages. The recent introduction of POP containing 4.0 mg of drospirenone, administered in a 24/4-day regimen, offers better cycle control than previous POPs, as it allows much more predictable bleedings and the same contraceptive efficacy as COCs. Hormonal contraception use continues to grow. The options to regulate reproduction are numerous, and users have a greater number of options to choose the one that suits their needs and comforts. Health professionals must provide high-quality contraceptive counseling, offering all available tools, including POPs.
Highlights
METHODOLOGYIt is well-known that the predominance of estrogens in the bloodstream makes cervical mucus fluid clear, transparent, thin and acellular, conditions that facilitate viability and migration of sperm into the female reproductive tract
Both the effects on cervical mucus and on the fallopian tubes slow the movement of gametes through the internal genital tract, preventing fertilization, which is the primary objective of progestin-only pills (POPs) [1]
Studies have shown that it inhibits ovulation, the use of a reliable nonhormonal contraceptive method is recommended in women who use it [1]
Summary
It is well-known that the predominance of estrogens in the bloodstream makes cervical mucus fluid clear, transparent, thin and acellular, conditions that facilitate viability and migration of sperm into the female reproductive tract. Based on the above information, the following were defined: oral progestin-only contraception or estrogen-free oral contraception, called progestin-only pills (POPs), or more commonly the minipill, due to the low hormone dose they provide. The fulltext articles were obtained for 310 (58.2%) They were reviewed, and without further qualification or measurement of the quality of the documents, 36 (11.6%) were discarded because they did not have enough information on POPs; 274 documents were selected. Using snowball sampling, another 17 complete articles were chosen, and through the Google Scholar electronic alert system, another five were obtained from January to December 2018 with the term “progestogen-only pills”. The most representative texts were included in the list of bibliographic references
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