Apr 22, 2010 / 23:04 pm
A researcher reported earlier this week that there is a strong scientific link between hormonal contraceptives and a woman's risk of contracting AIDS/HIV.
Joan Robinson, a researcher at the Population Research Institution, said that although over 50 medical studies to date show the link between the two, the scientific consensus has received little to no media coverage due to the economic and ideological force behind contraception.
“The science is settled,” Robinson says. “Hormonal contraceptives – the oral pill and Depo-Provera – increase almost all known risk factors for HIV, from upping a woman's risk of infection, to increasing the replication of the HIV virus, to speeding the debilitating and deadly progression of the disease,” reports Robinson in her article, titled “The Pill's Deadly affair with HIV/AIDS.”
Robinson explained on the PRI website Tuesday that hormonal contraceptives boost the number of specific cells in women which HIV uses to infect and proliferate in the body. According to the researcher, hormonal contraceptives also create an “ideal” site for HIV infection on the surface of a woman's uterus, eliminate the natural pH acid protection against infection and cause the fragile cervical tissue to grow beyond its natural bounds and replace what would normally be thick, protective membrane. Additionally, said Robinson, hormonal contraception can cause vaginal dryness which makes the environment susceptible to tears and abrasions, creating fertile sites for infection.