Ru 486 Misconceptions Myths and Morals - ressourcesfeministes

What Is RU 486 and How Does It Work?an independent—and unknown—mode of action in additionto its progesterone receptor blocking qualities (Wolf et al.,1989:189). 15 As Shi and Zhu put it:Early reports emphasized the local direct effect of RU 486at the progesterone receptor level in the uterus…However, the present study suggests that RU 486 andprogesterone compete with one another at the levels ofuterus, pituitary and hypothalamus, supporting thehypothesis that RU 486 interrupts early pregnancy andinduces menses by a multiple mode of action (1990:126; ouremphasis).RU 486 has also been tested as a menstrual inducer whenadministered before a missed period. However, when usedto induce menstruation, the drug’s failure rates are high, e.g.two out of eleven women had ongoing pregnancies (vanSanten and Haspels, 1987). In another study whichadminstered two doses of RU 486 to 12 women (the first onthe day of the expected menses, the second eight days later),22 pregnancies in 137 cycles (16%) occurred. (The unethicalnature of this experiment is staggering!) The researchersconcluded that ‘because of the high failure rate, use of RU486…cannot be advocated as a “once a month contraceptive”’(Couzinet et al., 1990:1039). These failure rates also ruleout i ts accep tability as a morning-after pill. Moreover, becauseof its long and still undetermined half-life, it interferes withthe next cycle, ‘causing delay of follicular maturation andthen disturbing periodicity’ (Baulieu, 1988b: 127). In anexperiment with RU 486 tampons used with monkeys, IVFresearcher, Gary Hodgen, 16 states that ‘After RU 486administration, the next ovarian cycle and ovulation wereoften delayed, sometimes for several weeks’ (1985: our emphasis).Baulieu himself suggests, ‘…one now needs a compound oran association of compounds acting for a relatively short timein order to avoid spill-over in the next ovulation’ (idem.).73