Morning After Pill - Saint Louis,MO

There was a ruling that was made today to clear the way.

Don't know about the birth control pills, interesting thought.

About the morning after pill being available to the very young..there is no wisdom left in this world :(

I've been on regular birth control pills for many years. I do know that regular birth control pills really DO need to have a doctor's care as part of taking them - if regular BC pils were over-the-counter, people wouldn't go to the doctor for help with them, so I don't actually believe they should EVER be over-the-counter.

I have never had to take the morning after pill. But I've read that they can be pretty painful and make you really sick. AND they don't always work. Women who have a really hard time with the sickness end up going to the doctor anyway and sometimes need a D&C.

So, I doubt that teens would take them often as a form of birth control...

You need more monitoring with constant BC because of the blood clot risk and blood pressure issues. Making plan B easier to get for a wider range of woman and girls is a great thing and with proper education and getting the word out there, could cut both the teen pregnancy rate and abortion rate.

Here's how to use many types of BC pills as a "morning-after" pill.
http://ec.princeton.edu/questions/dose.html#dose

The dose needed ranges from 2-4 regular pills for each of two doses taken with 12 hours between.

And information about the Morning-after contraception available:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/emergency-...

As a woman who's first sexual experience (at age 20) included a broken condom and two full weeks of anxious worry, I support the availability of this pill to all who need it!

The issue is that the OTC designation is a medical decision made by a scientific panel of the FDA. It is not supposed to represent social policy. The panel concluded that the morning after pill is safe and effective and can be safely and effectively used by a minor without the direct advice of a physician. The birth control pill is more complicated - there are more contraindications (smoking, hypertension, blood clots, etc) and more tricky issues (concurrent antibiotics requiring a back up bc method etc). Therefore the bc pill is still prescription and the morning after pill is OTC. Technically the morning after pill has been OTC if you were 18 or older for years. But, the pharmacist had to keep it behind the counter because it was prescription for minors.

In fact the FDA panel made the recommendation about a year ago and it was overruled by the head of the FDA (supported by President Obama) - I believe in order to avoid the potential political headaches it would cause.

ETA: It is not generally harmful for a sexually active teen to take birth control pills. It is just that there are individual benefits and risks - things that are appropriately addressed within the physician/patient relationship.

@Glenda - access to contraception is regulated at the state level. Twenty one states have laws that explicitly allow all minors access to bc without parental consent or notification. Twenty five have laws that allow minors access in some situations. When a state has no explicit rules, physicians may choose to provide contraceptive care to minors. Parents do NOT have the right to 100% control a teen's reproductive choices and behaviors. Witness the existence of teen pregnancy. I don't foresee a rampant increase in sex because there is a morning after pill. Contraceptive education has been clearly shown to decrease teen pregnancy over the use of abstinence only programs. The more kids know, the better their choices can be.

I have been very bothered by this since it first was announced a few weeks ago. I will be curious to see if the rise of STDs rises dramatically in the next few years. Young girls will be having more unprotected sex thinking they can just take the MAP and they won't get pregnant all the while exposing themselves to life threatening and life altering diseases. As the mother of a teenaged daughter, it really distresses me that my rights as her mother to know 100% of her health care concerns is being taken away by the government. I know that may not be popular but that's just my feelings....

***Amy, I can certainly see your point. However, I still feel that by making this particular drug so easily accessible to younger teens without a script then that is certainly decreasing the rights of parents to know what their daughters are taking. Reading the other ladies accounts of how sick the MAP can make a person, I think a parent of a minor has every right to know if their daughter is taking it. And I respectfully disagree about young girls having a right to medical privacy from their parents. My husband and I are responsible for providing for and taking care of all the needs of our daughter until she is an adult and that includes medical. She is still a child (14) and does not have the maturity yet to fully see a picture from all sides and make grown up decisions. If she ever found herself in the position where she felt like she could be pregnant (as a minor) then I think taking a MAP is not a choice she should make alone. The govt is telling her (and us parents) that she can.

***@Dana, thank you for the statistics information. Again, I just have to respectfully disagree with your statement about parents not controlling their children's sexual habits. I am no fool, believe me, I know that when it comes down to it, I can not watch my daughter 24 hours a day. If she is determined to engage in sexual activity, she will find a way. But, we are raising her in a conservative Christian home, we have laid clearly our expectations that we do not want her having sex while we are responsible for her well being. Because of what I believe is my biblical role as her parent, I feel I do have the right to control her reproductive behavior until she is old enough to be out from under our guidance and authority. The good thing is that I am very blessed. My daughter is also firm in her faith, is blessed to be in a youth group that encourages her to make good choices, it's obviously my prayer that she stays that way for at least the next 3 years! LOL Again, I respect your opinions but just see it from a little different angle. I guess like everything else, there are going to be tons of different opinions regarding what people think is best for their own children :-)

@Amy, you have made a very good rebuttal (hope I spelled that right!). Anyway, I can see your point but it still worries me that girls will be so focused on preventing a pregnancy that they miss the freight train of disease that could literally take their lives. And to be clear, I am talking about the young teens, not the adults. And I still struggle with the idea that parents could be completely in the dark about any of it. No easy answers but thank you for the polite debate on the topic, you know how these topics can get britches all fired up! LOL Wishing you a wonderful day :-)

I'm all for anything that protects or enhances women's reproductive rights.

Do you think women would still get a yearly gyno exam/pap test if they didn't need their pill Rx refilled?

But it would make bc pills more accessible to uninsured women.

And I guess there would then be Rx pills AND otc pills ( like Ibuprofen) so insurance coverage would still yield lower cost/co pay bc pills -- maybe.

Gynecologists are split down the middle on this issue.

You will need $50 and a photo ID, passport or birth certificate to get the Plan B pill.

J.:

If they lowered the age of birth control - I would be fine with that
.
I would NOT be fine with birth control being an OTC med. Sorry - but there are hormones in those pills that can cause serious health problems not only now but in the future as well.

The Morning After pill? Man. Such a controversial thing...my problem is if women start using it routinely instead of taking other precautions...then to top it off - what if the person taking it is allergic to one of the chemicals in the pill - parents don't know what's going on - rush their daughter to the ER and get the news?? YIKES.

And it's not 100% effective either. You can still conceive after using the Morning After pill. And it doesn't prevent STDs...

My concern is the number of people who will use it routinely - not understanding the large dose of hormones their body is getting....

I personally don't like it. It bothers me that we are giving CHILDREN this much "rope"....remember - under the age of 18 - is STILL A CHILD...not a legal adult....where is our society headed?

Actually yes, but because birth control is a culturally very sensitive issue, it is currently not really a topic of public discussion. Even the American College of Gynecologists actually endorses making birth control pills available OTC.
There is no minimum age for prescribing birth control pills and if there are indications (like a painful period) it is certainly prescribed to very young girls (yes, I am talking tweens).

To those who say that taking birth control is risky, I would argue that taking any medication is.
There are more people every year ending up with serious liver damage or even dying from tylenol overdoses than there are blood clots caused by BC.

Yes, ideally every woman would have access to affordable healthcare that monitors her birth control usage and looks out for side effects, but the reality unfortunately looks different.

Now I happen to believe that there should be a minimum age for children to obtain any OTC medication, even Tylenol, just because I think that a 10 year old for example is not able to properly read the instructions that come with the medication (heck, many adults have trouble understanding them) and follow the directions for safely using any medication. But that age limit should apply to all medication and be made on the basis of scientific standards - not social politics.

As opposed to the massive dose of hormones one is exposed to by, say, pregnancy???
The should pass out the morning after pill like candy. I'm with Sue, I've had the panicky few weeks post-birth control fail. Absolutely no reason to restrict this.

Birth control is a long-term change in hormone levels, not a couple of days. When I went on birth control as a teen I didn't connect the dots to my migraines for years- because I went to a clinic to bypass my parents' insurance and never saw the same doc twice. Medical supervision for any daily medication makes sense.

I am not too worried about it actually. Have any of you tried to buy it OTC without a prescription? My insurance covered it when I needed it, but, I didn't want to have to bother with the doc if I didn't have to. Anyway, I called 3 different pharmacies and it ranged from $55 to $75. I don't know about you, but I don't have that kind of money lying around, so how many teens and tweens do? especially if the insurance will pay for all of it if you CALL the doc, you don't even have to go.

Anyway, that is just my 2 cents worth. It is not economically feasible for those who might need it once a week....birth control is much cheaper at $4 a month for some of them.

I have taken the morning after pill when I had a birth control failure. I have a strong constitution but I distinctly remember laying miserably right outside the bathroom door, wondering if I should just crawl outside and have a truck run me over because there was no possible way it could have felt any worse. Then to top it all off I keep thinking there is no guarantee I still wouldn't get pregnant. Somehow I don't see most girls and women volunteering to do that every week.

This was done weeks ago.
And the problem with it is that children can get this without consent from their parents and not under the supervision of a Dr.

No one should be on birth control pills without supervision of a Dr. There are a lot of side effects for them. Everything from nausia , vomiting, migraines , to serious side effects like high blood pressure and blood clots.

I agree with you. I understand all the reasoning below, but I do agree with you. My doctor spends two seconds going over birth control and hands me all the info. on it, to take home. I haven't met anyone who has long, drawn out info sessions the office going over birth control. Is what happens in the doctor's office, really something that a pharmacist can't tell a person.? I wonder...how many of the women below were REALLY "monitored" in all the years they took birth control? How many doctors really "medically supervised" their bodies while on the pill? Anyone?

I think people need to be treated like they have brains. Explain what birth control does, give all the information needed, and allow them to decide if it's best. All of that can certainly be done at a pharmacy. You know how many women can't get birth control, because they can't afford the cost of a doctor's visit? Would you rather them walk up to a pharmacy and get birth control, or your tax dollars raise their kid?

There is an "age" for birth control pills?

Neither make sense to me.

Both should be approved over the counter, but this gives a not-sexually active girl and option if she's raped and can't report it. Trust me on this, most rapists intentionally target women and girls with lower social status on purpose. I ought to know.

For someone sexually active, though, yes, you're right - that would be healthier.