When drug companies introduced an updated version of the Pill in the mid-1980s, they claimed the newcomer was less likely to cause side effects like bleeding. Little did they know that the so-called triphasic pill also boasts an unexpected advantage over its predecessor: it may enhance a woman's sex drive.
While investigating the erotic activities of Pill users, San Francisco State University psychologist Norma McCoy, Ph.D., also happened to ask which kind of birth control pills her collegiate subjects were taking. About three women in five still get the monophasic variety, which provides a constant level of synthetic hormones. But many women take the triphasic type, in which dosage changes every week or so to mirror the biochemical contours of a woman's menstrual cycle.
Though both kinds of pills are effective, McCoy found that women who take the triphasic tablets may have more fun in bed. They think and fantasize about sex more often than monophasic users and become more aroused during love-making. They may even enjoy better lubrication, McCoy reported in the Archives of Sexuality.
