Urgent contraceptive should be classified as non-prescribed medicine

Urgent contraceptive should be classified as non-prescribed medicine
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -Emergency contraception pills are so safe that they should be sold over-the-counter in drugstores and supermarkets, experts said Thursday. A woman who has had unprotected intercourse can decide on her own whether to use these pills, and taking them is simple, according to Dr. Carolyn Westhoff, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and public health at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. "There are no risks to her doing this, "Westhoff said at a press briefing in New York hosted by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation of Menlo Park, California. "We've got plenty of studies now showing that these products are just safe, safe, safe." Because it can take so long to see a physician and then obtain and fill any prescription, Westhoff gives all her patients an undated prescription for emergency contraception, whether they want it or not. "I tell them to just keep it in a drawer, do it for me," she said. Immediate access is important because the pills are less effective when taken 61 to 72 hours after in tercourse, according to Dr. James Trussell of the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. The failure rate when taking them later can be eight times higher than if they are taken 60 or fewer hours after sex, he said. Asked whether repeated use of the pills is safe, Trussell said, "This is not a 'blast' of hormones, "as the dose is equivalent to a few conventional, low-dose birth control pills. The greatest medical risk is a normal pregnancy, he said, because these pills are less effective than most other forms of contraception. Currently, there are two brands of prescription pills marketed specifically for preventing pregnancy when used w ithin 72 hours of unprotected sex. These are Plan B, a progestin-only pill sold by Women's Capital Corporation, and Preven, an estrogen-progestin pill sold by Gynetics, Belle Mead, New Jersey. Both manufacturers have expressed interest in filing for over-the-counter approval with the US Food a nd Drug Ad ministration (news - web sites) ,Trussell said. But for Preven to seek approval as an over-the-counter drug, the effort would require at least $3 million and 2 years of effort, according to Mr. Roderick L. MacKenzie, chairman of the board of Gynetics.

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