From the Journals

Cycle timing may reduce hormonal dosage for contraception


 

FROM PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY

Model aims to improve women’s control of contraception

“Aside from wanting to contribute to controlling population growth, we aim to empower women more by giving them more control on when to conceive and start motherhood,” and be in control of contraception in a safer way, said lead author Ms. Gavina, in an interview. In addition, studies are showing the noncontraceptive benefits of suppressing ovulation for managing premenstrual syndromes such as breast tenderness and irritability, and for managing diseases such as endometriosis, she said. “Anovulation also lowers the risk of ACL injuries in female athletes,” she added.

Ms. Gavina said that she was surprised primarily by the optimal control result for estrogen monotherapy. “It was surprising that, theoretically, our mathematical model, with the simplifying assumptions, showed that as low as 10% of the total dose in constant administration could achieve contraception as long as the administration of this dosage is perfectly timed, and the timing was also shown in our optimization result,” she said.

“Our model does not capture all factors in contraception, since the reproductive function in women is a very complex multiscale dynamical system highly dependent on both endogenous and exogenous hormones,” Ms. Gavina told this news organization. However, “with the emergence of more data, it can be refined to address other contraception issues. Further, although the results of this study are not directly translatable to the clinical setting, we hope that these results may aid clinicians in identifying the minimum dose and treatment schedule for contraception,” she said.

Future research directions include examining within and between women’s variabilities and adding a pharmacokinetics model to account for the effects of specific drugs, she said. “We also hope to expand or modify the current model to investigate reproductive health concerns in women, such as [polycystic ovary syndrome] and ovarian cysts,” she added.

Ms. Gavina disclosed support from the University of the Philippines Office of International Linkages, a Continuous Operational and Outcomes-based Partnership for Excellence in Research and Academic Training Enhancement grant, and a Commission on Higher Education Faculty Development Program-II scholarship.

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