Open Question
In the 1960s, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a contraceptive that allowed women to plan desired pregnancies and prevent unwanted pregnancies. Oral hormonal contraception ('the pill') uses synthetic hormones similar in structure to progesterone and/or estradiol. What is the pill's mechanism of action?Scientists confirmed the pill's mechanism of action by measuring plasma hormone levels in women before and after they went on the pill (* means P<0.05, ** means P<0.01, and *** means P<0.001). Do the data shown here support the hypothesis that the pill affects hormonal signaling?