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South Africa has finally caught up with the rest of the world by introducing a contraceptive pill with folic acid into the market – seven years after this form of pill was introduced in the US.
Bayer launched the new formulation in their Yasmin and Yasmin Plus oral contraceptives this month with the hopes of not only helping women prevent pregnancy but also as a folate supplement for women who may be thinking of falling pregnant shortly after stopping the pill.
This pill they say could dramatically reduce women’s risk of neural tube defects when the woman does conceive because it offers folic acid protection of up to three months after one has stopped taking the pill.
Speaking at a breakfast briefing in Rosebank this morning, acclaimed US professor in obstetrics and gynaecology, Lee Shulman, explained that folate was a B vitamin nutrient also known as folic acid or B9 and B2 and was intrinsic to numerous metabolic functions most especially in pregnancy because a deficiency in it could lead to fetal neural tube defects that lead to spina bifidia.
It is recommended that women of child-bearing age take 0.4 mg (400 mcg) folic acid every day to lower the risk of pregnancy in which the unborn baby will suffer from a rare defect (an open defect in the neural tube).
The amount of folate in the tablets serves as a supplement to folate in the diet, and lowers this risk, should you become pregnant while taking the medicine or shortly after stopping it.
“We know folate deficiency in pregnant women leads to congenital abnormalities … From conception to day 26 what eventually becomes our brain and spinal column is a tube and is formed, and if that tube does not seal and close, there is a defect. Where there is a defect there an abnormality in neurological development,” Shulman said.
Folate has been shown to reduce the risk of these neural tube defects by 60% to 80%. It if taken after that 26-day mark it will have other health benefits for the pregnancy – just not the neurological protection.
Shulman said for the women not planning on having children, the pill with added folic supplementation still helped reduced the risk of cardiovascular diseases by 20% to 25% and symptoms associated with depression such as lethargy.
