It’s been 50 years, when the first oral contraceptive pill was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Australian sexual health physician Christine Read shared her views at a press meeting in Seoul last week saying that the most important public health intervention, for women, is the initiation of the contraceptive pill.

She said, “It has allowed us to control our fertility and to be able to plan when we would have children. It has permitted women to have sex safely, without fear of becoming pregnant”.

A contraceptive pill has a 99% effectiveness rate at stopping pregnancy and about 100 million women around the world are relying on the same. Korea is the one of the countries where contraceptive pills are not a very popular method for birth control.

Only 2%of Korean women use it, contrary to that about 20 to 40% of women in European countries take the pill. About 30.9% women take these pills in Thailand, while their consumption is 10% and 7.9%in Singapore and Hong Kong, respectively.

A survey on 430 Korean women aged over 20 was conducted by Bayer Schering Pharma, one of the early developers of contraceptive pills. These women had already undergone abortions. About 67% used natural birth control such as menstruation rhythm or withdrawal methods and 36% revealed that they used condoms.