WHO would have thought we could thank the Pope for sexing up contraception, eh?

A Sunday newspaper caused a stooshie by revealing the news women have been using the Pill in a suboptimal way for decades thanks to a legacy left by Pope John XXIII, a man for whom the existence of the contraceptive had no impact, other than theological.

John Rock, one of the gynaecologists who invented the Pill, was a devout Catholic and so he designed a seven-day break in the system in order to try to convince the Pope that the hormonal medicine was more "natural" and so more acceptable. Of course, the Pope rejected it anyway.

And so, for the past 60 years, women have been having entirely unnecessary monthly bleeding to please the Pope. Or at least that's what the headlines said and women were absolutely furious. We've been bleeding every month just to please the Pope?

Well, no. There were several reasons for designing the Pill to be taken for 21 days and skipped for seven, and the Pope was the least of them. When it was first introduced on the NHS - in 1961 for married women and in 1967 for all - the doses of hormones in the Pill were far, far stronger than those we use now.

The Pill had pronounced side effects and so a week's break was a relief from the flood of hormones. Women also said they preferred to have a monthly bleed. It was reassurance the Pill was doing its job - you weren't pregnant - and it felt more "natural". It also was a new development and so taking a break relieved some of the anxiety about how it was affecting a woman's body.

Now, the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare has released advice for doctors that says it's perfectly fine, and actually preferable, to take the Pill continuously. Doctors should now feed this information back to their patients.

The Pope's connection to the Pill seems a distraction from the main issue, which is the question of why, as Pill dosages have lowered and as more information has become available, didn't women already know that the Pill is safe to take continuously?

As a young teenager I can remember reading just this in a woman's magazine. A bride-to-be had written in to say she was due her period while on honeymoon and was there anything that could be done. The response was to go to her family doctor and ask for the Pill, then take it without a break. No harm done. The progesterone only pill; Depo-Provera, the injection; intrauterine devices (IUDs); and the contraceptive implant all stop periods. So why weren't more women asking why, on the Pill, they needed to have a monthly break, and why, more importantly, weren't doctors and nurses flagging this up?

From listening to women, this news about periods not being a medically necessary part of the Pill was a real shock. My only surprise was that this came as a surprise to women, given how much information is available about the Pill and other contraceptives.

But it seems I'm unusual in being aware. Advice from GPs and sexual health clinics has been contradictory or has simply left gaps when informing patients. Many had no idea they could take the oral contraceptive continuously; many report being told that taking the Pill continuously would be harmful or cause inconvenient breakthrough bleeding.

Some 33 per cent of British sexually active women take the Pill - that's a lot of women misled.

We can see how damaging misinformation and rumour is by looking at the low rates of women taking up their smear test. We know cervical screening saves lives yet figures released to coincide with Cervical Cancer Prevention Week this week show cervical screening rates among all ages are at their lowest for two decades, attributed to fears of pain and embarrassment.

The vaginal mesh scandal is in the news again as it was revealed the academic behind a research paper into the device, an implant used to treat incontinence and repair pelvic organ prolapse, did not declare £100,000 from the manufacturer making one of the types of vaginal mesh implant he was assessing. Women have been crippled by vaginal mesh, all while being misled about its efficacy.

This week the Scottish Government published its recommendations for Personal and Social Education (PSE) in secondary schools. The education and skills committee, calling sex education in schools "patchy" is now calling for a review of all PSE. Here's somewhere that the Pope - or, at least, the Catholic Church - does have an influence given the Scottish Catholic Education Service was part of the working group looking at sex education in schools.

It seems that information is also patchy among adults and that's more difficult to fix.

Second-wave feminists in the 1960s and 70s argued a woman's control over her fertility and her body was power but these stories tell us we're still wary of giving women that power. Whether this is a hangover from the policing of women's sexuality, or a misguided paternalistic 'doctor knows best' attitude, it needs to stop.

We should arm ourselves with information about our bodies. Of course, it is not just the responsibility of individual women: women trust their doctors and need to trust them to give consistent advice.

The Pope thing is an eye catching distraction. When women are let down over their health and bodies, we need facts not misplaced outrage.