Emergency contraception pills are safe and effective
Imagine this scenario that untold numbers of women find themselves in each year. Maybe you had unprotected intercourse, or the condom broke, or maybe you accidentally missed taking a birth control pill or two. You don't want to get pregnant, so you rush to the pharmacy for emergency contraception. All the while, the clock is ticking.To get more news about vigrx plus price, you can visit vigrxplus-original.com official website.
"These medications are incredibly time sensitive," says Dr. Sonya Borrero, a professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh who focuses on reproductive health equity. She says emergency contraception pills need to be taken within five days after unprotected sex — "but the sooner, the better."
Surveys show that roughly a quarter of American women have, at some point in their lives, used emergency contraception pills to prevent an unintended pregnancy. This type of contraception is effective, safe and legal throughout the United States. And yet researchers are finding it's not always available when people need it.
Take, for example, levonorgestrel, a form of emergency contraception better known under the brand name Plan B, although it's also available in generic versions with names including My Way, Take Action and My Choice, to name a few. Borrero says Plan B is supposed to be available over the counter, on the shelf, stocked for all ages.
But when Borrero sent a team of medical students to pharmacies across western Pennsylvania to see what these stores actually had on hand, they found a third of pharmacies didn't stock Plan B at all. And when they did have it, "most of the time it wasn't really on the shelf. It was either behind the counter or in one of those locked boxes," which means a customer would have to ask someone to hand them the emergency contraception. She says that could be a real deterrent for some people.
"You can imagine, especially for a teen, going and asking for one of these products and being concerned about potential judgment can be a significant barrier to purchasing," Borrero says.
Pharmacists say there are good reasons for putting Plan B under lock and key. Don Downing, a clinical professor at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy, spent many years as a retail pharmacist, and he also helped develop Plan B. He says many pharmacists have told him over the years that Plan B is frequently a target of theft, and a lot of pharmacies are struggling financially and can't afford to cover the losses. He says he'd rather see it locked up in the store than not available at all.
If they could make it available by keeping it behind the counter, that may be ultimately more helpful to a woman than not stocking it at all," Downing says.
Noah Rosenthal is a merchandising analyst with Hamacher Resource Group, which provides analysis and consulting for retail pharmacies. He notes that Plan B and its generics retail for about $40 to $50, and this cost is a key reason why some retailers may stock emergency contraception in a locked box or behind the counter. In an email to NPR, he noted that before 2006, Plan B could only be dispensed by a pharmacist, so some pharmacies may not have moved it even after the FDA cleared it for over-the-counter sale. He added, "Some pharmacists may elect to place these items behind the counter for religious or other personal views."