maleficent

I was reading in October's Glamour Magazine (I know, not exactly the best source for all news medical) however, it had a small article on the Morning After Pill.

The article:
You've heard about emergency contraception (EC) or the "morning after pill", which can prevent pregnancy when taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. (This year EC made headlines when the FDA declined to grant it over the counter status) If you have a prescription, it may be hard to fill: When Glamour called more than 100 pharmacies in all 50 states, we were shocked to find that only about one in three were familiar with EC and had it in stock.

If you have a birth control mishap and need EC, call 888-NOT-2-LATE, or log on to Go2EC.ORG to find reliable providers in your area who can help.

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raeanna74

I had heard something about this. Do they mention specifically which Morning After Pill that they are referring to? Sometimes the label is used for the RU-486 pill and other times it's used for the Plan B pill. Plan B pill can be effective up to 5 days to prevent implantation of the egg or preventing ovulation. On the other hand RU-486 can interrupt a current pregnancy. The Plan B pill does not have that ability. From what I've learned about the potential complications of RU-486 I do not think it is wise to release it ovre the counter. I doubt anyone else believes that wise either. Here's a linky for the Plan B pill and the FDA's decision.

Also if you want more information you can go to FDA

From what I see Glamour must be referring to Plan B. I can totally understand the reasons behind the FDA's rejection at this time. I would like to know that this drug is safe before my daughter could get ahold of it and use it. Girls that age don't always have good judgement and could use it incorrectly. Also they're bodies are unaccustomed to the hormones they already have in their system we have no idea how a dosage of that size could affect them. Let be sure of the safety first. I'm surprised they didn't do any studies for girls that age. They need to be more careful and not in such a rush to get the drug out there.

BTW I checked - my local pharmacy has Plan B (levenorgestrol .75mg) right now.

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maleficent

I don't think that this drug should be available over the counter, if nothing else, it's promoting sexual irresponsibility, god knows what diseases people could end up with.

Where Glamour's concern is, and mine as well, and I fully realize this is Glamour magazine talking, and not a medical publication, but I read a lot about how young women should have a prescription for EC, just in case, but according to Glamour, it's awfully hard to fill, a lot of pharmacists weren't clear on what the scrip actually was.

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lurkette

It's disturbing that only 1/3 of pharmacies carried this. However, as Plan B is basically a larger than normal dosage of the ingredient found in many standard BC pills, if your pharmacy doesn't carry Plan B by name, your doctor should be willing to prescribe the proper BC pills and instruct you how to take them for the same effect.

I agree about not selling this stuff OTC - too much potential for misuse/abuse.

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"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."

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combatmedicjen

The morning-after pill is just a larger dose of the hormones found in regular birth control pills. If you're in a situation like that, where you can't get your Rx filled, just find one of the many millions of women who take birth control pills and bum four or five off of them. Then get a damn prescription yourself and take your stupid pill every day so you won't be in this situation ever again!

I don't really agree with that. People will be sexually irresponsible no matter what. The EC pill at least prevents some women from having babies they can't take care of. And if people want to be irresponsible and get diseases because they're too stupid to test themselves and their partner before they jump in the sack, then they deserve an icky STD! Hopefully they'll learn their lesson.