A few weeks back new UK guidelines came out advising women on combined oral contraceptives that the pill could safely be taken daily without the monthly, seven-day, hormone-free break.

The idea that the 21/7 regimen was outdated and unnecessary probably wasn’t global news. But then Professor John Guillebaud, a reproductive expert from University College London, lit the media touch paper by declaring the placebo regime has never had a clinical rationale.

“How could it be that for 60 years we have been taking the pill in a suboptimal way because of this desire to please the Pope?” he asked reporters.

His comments about the so-called ‘Pope Rule’ triggered headlines about the evils of papal influence on medical practice, including one story that spoke darkly about how all this time “women were lied to” about the drug which revolutionized their lives.