Influence of contraceptive gestogen pills on sexual behaviour and the spread of gonorrhoea.

The introduction and widespread use of antibiotics in the last few decades have altered public attitudes towards venereal diseases and the previous fear of their consequences has been replaced by indifference, which has in turn contributed to sexual permissiveness. It has been contended that the removal of fear of pregnancy by the increasing availability and use of contraceptive gestogen pills and intrauterine devices has also contributed to increased sexual activity and has thus possibly become a new factor facilitating the spread of venereal infections (Ids0e and Guthe, 1967). The use of contraceptive gestogen pills has increased in Sweden during the last two years and the present study was undertaken to obtain answers to the following questions: (1) Does the use of gestogen contraceptive pills lead to an increase of promiscuous behaviour? (2) What is the effect of such pills on the frequency of sexual intercourse? (3) Is there evidence that such hormonal ingestion alters the susceptibility of the mucosa to gonococcal infection? (4) Has the use of condoms-so far considered the best protection against venereal diseases -decreased since the introduction of the gestogen pills?