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Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Frustration

This is just brilliant, this.

I had a patient come in today to pick up a new pack of pills, wanting to know how to restart, as she’d messed up her last pack. She’d missed a pill in the first week, started having some spotting in the second week (as can happen if you miss a pill), got nervous, and stopped taking them altogether. She had planned to use condoms until her period came and she could start over with a new pack. But then they had a condom break.

She went to a local discount retailer with a pharmacy dept, which I shall refer to here as Mall-Wart. She asked to buy some Plan B. Some may know, some may not – Plan B is available without a prescription if you’re 18 or over (and men can buy it too). The gentleman she spoke with at the pharmacy said he didn’t believe in Plan B, and didn’t want to give it to her, so if she wanted it she should go talk to someone else. He also told her that anyway, Plan B is just a larger dose of the hormones that you’d find in birth control pills.

Now, I wasn’t there, and I don’t know for sure what was said or not said. I don’t know whether he suggested or implied that she should just go take a handful of her birth control pills or not. I can’t even begin to address the logical inconsistency of “not believing in Plan B” and then suggesting they try taking a bigger dose of birth control pills instead. But the upshot of the whole thing is that my patient went in asking for Plan B, was refused it, and went home and took 4 regular birth control pills instead. This won’t kill her, it just made her nauseous. But it is not going to work as well as Plan B could.

There are ways to use birth control pills for emergency contraception if you can’t get a hold of Plan B. Guessing at what to do is not the best way to go about it. I can’t believe the irresponsibility of whoever this person was she spoke with at the pharmacy. I have to try to figure out a way to address this so they can’t do that again. Suppose I can find a law student willing to file suit like they did in Massachusetts?

Anyway, lots of good info about emergency contraception on www.not-2-late.com

And don't go to Mall-Wart.

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