The Pill

[SuperPigeon]

For my A-Levels I must do a research assignment on The Contraceptive Pill.
Different websites seem to give me different numbers of people who use it: one site said 80 million women, another 150 million.
Does anyone know the exact number of women who use the pill?

[theprof]

It�s impossible to obtain a figure for the exact number of women who use the pill. Although it might be possible via WHO to correlate genuine oral contraceptive tablets manufacture against collated data on prescriptions issued worldwide, you have to remember that millions of tablets are manufactured annually in the Far East and sold over the internet. Likewise, a fair percentage of prescribed tablets will not be used through choice, date expiry, loss and other factors. Therefore, the exact number of women using the pill at any given time will never be known.

Having said that, most health organisations at the present time concede that between 100million to about 110million women worldwide receive the pill via a medical professional. Here's a link to one authoritative source that quotes these figures:

http://www.umm.edu/patiented/articles/what_ora l_contraceptives_000091_2.htm

Because you've come across such a wide variation in figures, I'd suggest that you need to spend some time reviewing other resources online to justify quoting any figures on pill usage you provide in the finished assignment. In addition, because these figures are open to debate, providing web addresses of any other authoritative sources you come across will help to prove your point � remember that the more authoritative the resource, the less chance there will be for someone to come along and succeed in criticising your figures. This is about the best you can hope to do given that the exact figures on pill usage are impossible to provide.

[SuperPigeon]

Thanks. That is more than a great help :)

I have to provide a bibliography and I already have 9 sources (the minimum was 5) so I think Im safe lol.

Thanks again, Ill definitely have a look at that site :)