My thoughts on Mifepristone, the Abortion Pill, Up to 98% effective when used within 8 weeks of pregnancy.

I have not nor do I anticipate using it to have an abortion. I also realize it's a little weird for me as a guy to be doing a video about women's health. However, it's actually relevant to the other sex and contraception Biohacks I've discussed.

And it's consistent with my moral philosophy, I'll explain why later...

The Science

Over 100 human clinical trials have been done with Mefipriston in the past 10 years alone so the research is pretty good on this one.

A clinical trial was conducted in 2017 which totaled 744 Chinese women:

Low-dose mifepristone combined with self-administered misoprostol for ultra-early pregnancy termination was as effective and safe as hospital administration, with greater acceptability and lower cost to the women.

I thought it was a little funny that the study notes that 87% of the Chinese women were very satisfied with the abortion experience. I satisfied a Chinese woman once...

Mechanism of Action

• Mifepristone blocks the effect of progesterone which is necessary to maintain the pregnancy.
• Misoprostol must be taken afterward, it causes contraction of the uterus.

The abortion pill works up to the 8th week of pregnancy

Cost

It is usually used along with 14 tablets of another drug called Misoprostol, that package on Medside costs 120 euros, which is kind of expensive. But a lot less expensive than surgical abortion and certainly a whole lot less expensive than raising a child until they are 18 years old.
So this is not really like a day-after pill. That if you have an Opps and you think you may have gotten pregnant, take it the next day just in case. You would only want to take it if you were definitely pregnant and definitely did not want to be.

Side Effects

The side effects are pretty nasty. Apparently, there's a lot of bleeding and cramping for weeks afterward. If you're thinking about using it you would want to read up on the side effects and prepare your body accordingly. But it ultimately sounds like a better option than a surgical abortion which is radically invasive surgery; debatably the most radically invasive surgery.

 The Abortion Question

Most Biohacking gurus and sexperts would NOT touch the subject of the ethics of abortion because it's like the most radioactive, high-valence subject but perhaps just out of intellectual recklessness I'm going to attempt to navigate these rocky waters and make an argument that you haven't heard before...

Some may be reading this article with a growing ethical discomfort about the idea of aborting a pregnancy and the truth is that I identified as a Pro-Lifer for the longest time, however upon more robust philosophical examination I recognized that it's a false dichotomy that you have to be in one of these militant Pro-Choice or Pro-Life camps. There's a 3rd (and much more scientific and rational) approach to this issue that allows us to totally respect women's rights and bodies while respecting human life. I believe in women's rights, and I believe in the unborn human's rights but I do not believe in embryonic rights. After 8 weeks of gestation, the amorphous combination of the cells transforms into something that has all of the characteristics that we define as human (heartbeat, brain waves, distinct internal organs, eyes, fingers, DNA that is distinct from its mother, etc).
So the most ethical public policy would be to give women 8 weeks to make their reproductive choice, which is sufficient time for an adult to make a serious life decision. After those 8 weeks what's growing within them is objectively a human being and should be treated as such. This approach accounts for all the classic Pro-Choice arguments and is compatible with using Mefipriston and the alternative birth control strategies that I recommend.

Alternative Birth Control Strategies

So the mainstream birth control/family planning methods are all pretty terrible.

• First of all, there are condoms, which really don't feel great. Horny Goat Weed does enhance the sexual sensations but it does not feel anything like condom-free sex.
• If you don't want to use condoms there's the pull-out method also referred to as skeet-skeet in hip-hop parlance for those of you who aren't as hip-hop as I am. I think we've all used the pull-out method.
• Then there's hormonal birth control. Which is this little pill that the woman has to take every single day at the same time, it has all these terrible side effects and if she forgets to take it then she might still get pregnant anyways.
• And then if you have an unplanned pregnancy well you should go get a surgical abortion that's expensive, painful, has a lot of negative side effects, and is (maybe) killing a human being.

Luckily, there are a lot of alternative options that are a huge improvement on these.

The Natural Rhythm Method

No, this is not an RnB album. It's where the woman keeps track of her monthly cycle using a calendar, a device (that looks suspiciously like a flying saucer), or a smartphone app and just avoids sex around the days that she is most likely to get pregnant. According to some studies it works up to 95 percent of the time if you are doing it right, however, according to another study, it only works 80 - 87 percent of the time, which is not so great.
The difference apparently, is that if you just avoid the single few high fertility days that occur in a month, sperm can survive in the woman for like 7-10 days. So to properly do the Natural Rhythm Method you want to avoid sex for the 7--10 days surrounding the high fertility period, which you can determine using an app or your calendar.

A 2016 meta-analysis about the Standard Days Method (which is what they are calling the Natural Rhythm Method) concluded

Claims made for SDM effectiveness appear to rely on a single efficacy study where "correct use" of SDM was defined as total abstinence from intercourse in cycle days 8-19. It may therefore be misleading to apply a 95% effectiveness figure from the study to SDM as promoted, where abstinence is not required. Moreover, "typical use" effectiveness figures, cited as 88%, are based on an unrepresentative sample

 Herbal Birth Control

There are a couple of quite affordable herbs that have a contraceptive effect like Queen Anne's Lace, Neem Oil, and Apricot Seeds which contain laetrile. I'd encourage you to look these up, read the reviews and see what different women are saying about them. They seem to be very satisfied with them as a contraceptive. I researched these quite a bit and didn't come across any reports of them not working. Which is a good sign!

Tantric Semen Retention

This is something for men that comes out of the school of Taoism, Taoists were like the original Biohackers. There's a method that you can learn if you're a guy, that entails doing some special breathing exercises while doing Kegels while you're having sex that will stave off and maybe even totally prevent ejaculation. If you can completely avoid ejaculating inside a woman then that's a pretty surefire contraceptive.
If you're serious about learning this what you're going to have to do is actually masturbate by yourself for about 20 sessions while doing meditative breathing exercises, which sounds weird but there's a protocol to follow.

Frustratingly none of these natural contraceptive methods have an abundance of perfect science done on them. What they have is a lot of anecdotal evidence and they have been used in medicinal traditions dating back sometimes thousands of years.
Sex and contraception are such basic human functions and needs that it's a bit frustrating that science has not devoted a bit more attention to studying these natural methods.

I did a more detailed podcast on the topic of Herbal birth control and something I mentioned in it is that I have a little more faith than normal in these traditional contraceptive methods because since time immemorial prostitutes have been having sex for money and they needed effective forms of contraceptive. If a prostitute gets pregnant she's in a lot of trouble, it may be the end of her career as a prostitute and it may kill her. Throughout history, a lot of women died in childbirth.

Since I'm a philosophical Biohacker, I'll do a little bit of moralizing...

If you're paranoid about pregnancy then that's a pretty good sign that maybe you're having sex with people you shouldn't be having sex with.

• If your having sex with a bad girl that you stumbled out of a nightclub with at 4 AM then (yeah!) you're going to be paranoid about pregnancy, if you have a child with her she's liable to be that stereotypical crazy baby's mama that terrorizes you and drains your wallet for 18 years.
• If you're having sex with an exciting bad boy who's in a band, drives a motorcycle, gets in fights, and smells like whiskey, you should be paranoid about pregnancy because if you get pregnant he's likely going to hit the road and be an absentee father.

But if you're having sex with someone virtuous, who has redeeming moral qualities outside of being sexy, ambitious, funny, and available you know that person will be a good parent to your future child and you won't be so paranoid about them ruining your life if there's a pregnancy.

In Conclusion...

Don't rely on any one of these methods alone but used in combination you can have a pretty wet and wild sex life with a virtuous partner with very little risk of an unplanned pregnancy. And you won't need things like Mefipriston.