Information!

[highlyeccentric]

So apparently I've been under Misinformation about the Morning After Pill. The assorted bits of sex ed, books, People Telling You Stuff, and the Internet that i've read over the years accumulated to give me the impression that the Morning After Pill sort of flushed you out- caused your period to come, wolla, preventing implantation.

This is wrong. Bitch PHD, posting at Suicide Girls, and drawing her information largely from the indomitable P. Z. Myers (who is an embryologist and knows what he's on about) explains:

Plan B consists of two pills that contain a synthetic form of progesterone, one of the two main female hormones (the other is estrogen) that occur naturally and are used in birth control pills...
When a woman is pregnant, her body produces a lot of progesterone, which keeps her from ovulating—thereby preventing her from getting pregnant a second time and trying to carry them both, which would be a disaster. So progesterone prevents ovulation...

According to Family Planning NSW's fact sheet, the Morning After Pill (as it's known down here) is equal to 50 mini-pills, taken in two batches 12 hours apart. So it's nothing weird or arcane. In fact, it's nothing I don't have in my drawer at the moment. It's also available over-the-counter from pharmacists in Australia, without proof of age (unlike the US, where you have to be over 18).

The Estimable BitchPHD goes on:

So let's say for some reason a woman who isn't on birth control finds herself with sperm floating around inside her: a condom broke, she was raped, she and her partner were sloppy and overly enthusiastic, whatever. If she's already ovulated within the last 24 hours, all she can do is cross her fingers: you can't stop something that's already happened. But if she hasn't, and is unlucky enough that she's just about to, she can take a big dose of progesterone that will stop her from popping an egg long enough for the sperm to die, and no pregnancy. Hurrah!...

Bonus. But note the underlined section.

This is the second thing that needs explaining. There is no evidence that Plan B prevents implantation. That's not a known effect of progesterone. But because science can't prove a negative—you can't prove that something doesn't happen, because if it doesn't happen, there is, by definition, no evidence—the drug company puts that little "may" in there. All "may" means is "even though we've never seen it happen, we can't prove that it doesn't."

So the Morning After Pill isn't a catch-all. According to Family Planning, it doesn't make your period come earlier and it shouldn't have any side effects.
What DOES do that, is RU486, the 'abortion drug' that caused all that fuss with the conscience vote a while back. So far as i can make out from this detail-heavy post at The Well Timed Period, RU486, or mifepristone, does not function exclusively as an abortion drug, abortion being scientifically defined as the termination of a pregnancy. A pregnancy is established only after implantation. Preventing implantation isn't abortion because a pregnancy hasn't been established yet. (fished from her comments section). RU486 can also be given in a smaller dose, preventing both ovulation and implantation. It's the latter function that the pro-life movement have a problem with, but the thing is, as this PZ Myers post bemoans, it's also a function which is frequently and erroneously assigned to 'Plan B' or the Morning After Pill, by those supporting its use and availability (particularly the manufactuer), on the one hand, and as the primary reason for OPPOSING its use and availability by the religious right.

I couldn't remember which way the RU486 vote swung in 2006, so I fished out this old Lateline script, and apparently the Health Minister was stripped of his veto and it ought to be available by prescription in Australia by now, presumably for use either as a chemical abortion OR as post-coital contraception. Apparently politicians don't have the scientific knowledge to decide on its 'safety'- which is amusing, did anyone actually believe it was a safetey debate? We don't call conscience votes for SAFETY reasons.


But back to the regular Morning After Pill:
1. It stops ovulation, not implantation
2. It's regular ole progestrone, nothing weird or scary.
3. It's not a failsafe.
4. It's available over the counter in Australia.


Isn't it against some kind of marketing law or something to say that your drug 'may' do something that there is neither proof nor idication that it does? There's so much contradictory information out there about contraception, why are the MANUFACTURERS allowed to contribute to it? (Speaking of misinformation: contraceptive pills contain only progestrone and eostrogen, the minipill has only the former. Both of these hormones occur naturally in the female body. The risk of side effects such as breast cancer DOES exist, but is much lower than it was when my mother was taking the pill, and the doses are much lower than they were back then too. So, well-meaning but daft friend of mine, I'm not 'pumping my body' with chemicals 'they don't tell you about, even when you see the doctor'. As for side effects, I know about 'em, and somehow I think almost-certain babies are worse than possible side effects.)

Comments

[flamearrows.livejournal.com]

Where are the manufacturers contributing to the misinformation?

To my knowledge, advertising pharmaceutical products in Australia is under a restriction of a fairly wide aegis, so I doubt that anyone is advertising anything.

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

Isn't it against some kind of marketing law or something to say that your drug 'may' do something that there is neither proof nor idication that it does?

I think it's the drug companies covering their arses, to be honest. If they didn't say that, and something did happen, there'd be all sorts of "why didn't you warn us??" uproar. It's much the same as the info about potential side effects in medicine leaflets - the side effects certainly won't happen to everyone, but they do need to warn about them just in case.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

they're saying it MAY do this thing which would HELP in its effect, though, it's not a side effect or a down side or anything.

[ahsavka.livejournal.com]

Living and going to school in a pretty conservative part of the US, I think this is ass-covering as well. True, it seems odd to say it "may" do something that would be a plus (you usually don't see that), but for many Christians here preventing ovulation is okay -- no eggs are fertilized -- but preventing implantation is a huge no-no. Not a plus at all.

Despite the fact that there's no evidence that plan B or wonderful low-dose birth control will stop implantation, well-meaning but uninformed people have told me to my face that it will. If you look at anti-birth-control websites/pamphlets with titles like "The Truth About Birth Control" you'll see that there are claims floating around that it will sometimes stop implantation. I don't think these claims have any merit -- not one I ever saw was worth its salt. I think the manufacturers put that "may" there so that people can't sue the loving hell out of them if (maybe by failing to take the pill properly) they have an egg fertilized and said egg fails to implant.

How on /earth/ they will prove this, I don't know. But that's the evil scenario that gets thrown about whenever people talk to me about the devil in birth control.

That's the best I can figure it, anyway.