Dr. John Wilks has worked as a community pharmacist for more than fifteen years and has owned and managed his own pharmacy for ten years. During this time he has developed a strong interest in patient counselling and in the correct administration of drugs. He is the Director of the Drug Information Service of Western Sydney and was one of the first Australian community pharmacists to utilize Micromedex, a drug–information CD, as an adjunct to patient counselling. He lectures part–time to graduate pharmacists at the University of Sydney, is a Director of API (Australian Pharmaceutical Industries) Health Care/Pharmacist Advice group and provides consultancy services to other community pharmacists interested in patient counselling. He has been a research investigator involved in a variety of projects linked both with the University of Sydney and pharmaceutical manufactures. Dr. John Wilks is the author of the book: A Consumer's Guide to The Pill and Other Drugs
Contact: jfwilks@bigpond.net.au
Scientific studies have provided strong evidence indicating that for many women the 'morning-after' pill (MAP) does not stop a pregnancy from occurring. Researchers have said that this drug acts in at least two ways to end a pregnancy that began at fertilization. It is also very dangerous to a woman's health. Scientific reports have proved that.
Date posted: 2004-02-18
The data published in this weeks Lancet supports the view that use of the pill, particularly for 10 years or more, is exclusively linked to an increased risk of cervical cancer (compared to non-users). The presence of HPV is not necessary for the genesis of cervical cancer. Unfortunately if a woman is infected with HPV and also taking the pill, her risk of developing cervical cancer is higher, at least after 10 years pill use, when compared to the increased risk seen in a woman free of the virus but having used the pill for the same length of time.
Date posted: 2003-04-14
Recently it has been reported that women on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) had acquired a 26% increased risk of developing breast cancer.(1) So dramatic was this finding it precipitated the early closure of the study. Worldwide media attention brought this and other findings onto the front page of major national newspapers. In Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, charged with the regulation of all drugs prescribed in Australia, responded to this study by tightening the indications for HRT use.
Date posted: 2002-08-17
Questions and answers dealing with how the pill works and fails.
Date posted: 2001-12-04
We all have to make informed choices about our health and about the chemicals we put inside our bodies. Making such choices is not helped by the manner in which much relavant information is available; either as over-simplified summaries in short booklets, or spread across hundreds of journals in thousands of research papers and scholarly reviews. Mr Wilks provides a critical review of the literature relating to the safety, effectiveness and mode-of-action of drugs developed to manipulate female hormonal physiology. Although not everyone may agree with his conclusions, he raises important questions about the ways in which what is known through research is packaged and presented to prescribers and consumers.
Date posted: 2001-12-03
The chances of a woman developing breast cancer over her lifetime is one in eight in the U.S.A., and one in 16 in Australia. Remember, the pill has been available in these countries for almost 30 years. But in Japan, the chances of breast cancer in a woman's lifetime are one in 50.
Date posted: 2001-12-02
For health consumers and health care professionals of an orthodox Judeo-Christian or Islamic tradition, as well as those authentically concerned with the universal respect of unqualified human rights, the asserted capacity of the pill to act as an abortifacient, both in its once-a-day and 'morning-after' permutations, is one of significant moral weight. Moralists, philosophers and human rights' advocates question the use of the title 'contraceptive' to describe the pill. The term 'contraceptive' refers to a drug, device or chemical that prevents the joining of the sperm with the ovum. The problem arises because the female sex cell, the secondary oocyte, may be present in the reproductive tract at or near the time of coitus, hence there exists the possibility that fertilization may occur. The pill also alters the receptive structure of the endometrium, making implantation problematical.
Date posted: 2001-12-01