Optimal control-based dosing of combined oral contraceptives via pharmacokinetic modeling

The problem of contraception dosing, aiming also at reducing side effects, is analysed. The hormonal role, whose primary mechanism of action is the prevention of ovulation by inhibiting follicular development, is studied, to include also the effects of oral contraceptives; more precisely, the dynamics of the drug is introduced, thus coupling a pharmacokinetics (PK) model with a hormonal dynamics one. The optimal dosage scheduling is determined in the framework of the Pontryagin principle, comparing the results of three different existing contraceptive pills with each other on the basis of existing physiological criteria.