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EMERGENCY BIRTH CONTROL
Should "morning after" pills be available without a prescription? September 1998 |
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Questions asked
in this forum:
What about the religious issues involved with making the decision to take this pill? What precautions are there to make sure the medication isn't abused. Is there demographic data on who uses this pilot project.
NewsHour Backgrounders
December 29, 1997
A report on the remarkable changes in reproductive technology .
January 22, 1997
Today marks the 24th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion in Roe V. Wade.
September 19, 1996
The FDA has tentatively approved U.S. sales of the French abortion drug, RU486 .
Browse the Online NewsHour's coverage of health.
Outside Links
Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH)
The Emergency Contraception Website
A question from Jenny of San Francisco, CA:
I had to take this pill after I'd been raped and I was on medications that might have conflicted. Would I have had a problem if I went through the Emergency Contraception Pilot Project?
Jane Hutchings, Director of the Emergency Contraception Pilot Project, answers:
Some medications, notably anticonvulsants (and possibly broad spectrum antibiotics, although no firm pharmacokinetic evidence exists) are thought to decrease the effectiveness of birth control pills taken daily for contraceptive use. The lower the hormone (estrogen or progestin) dose, the greater the risk that a medication may reduce the contraceptive effectiveness.
Emergency contraceptive pills provide a short term, relatively high hormone dose (two to four times the dose of daily birth control pills) and it is unlikely that their effectiveness is compromised through interactions with other medications. However, all women who receive emergency contraceptive pills directly from a pharmacist in the pilot project are counseled to visit a physician or clinic if their menstrual period does not start within three weeks after taking emergency contraceptive pills or if they think they may be pregnant.
Dr. Tom Norris, Associate Dean and Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine, answers:
I am not sure what medications you were taking that might have had an interaction with your prior drug. It is possible that the medications might be a problem with the Emergency Contraception Pilot Project protocol as well.
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