Morning after, teenagers pop pill at will

Vividha Kaul / TNN / Mar 26, 2006, 00:10 IST

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The morning after pill may have become an OTC drug last year but with accessibility, doctors report increasing misuse of the pill.

Morning after, teenagers pop pill at will

NEW DELHI: The morning after pill may have become an over the counter (OTC) drug last year but with accessibility, doctors report increasing misuse of the pill specially among the city's teenagers.
"Awareness about the pill has increased to the extent that it's being misused. School and college students who come to know about it, use it without consulting a doctor." said Dr Sunita Verma, consultant gynaecologist at Max Healthcare.
"More awareness, in fact, may lead to greater misuse," agreed Dr Madhu Shrivastav, senior consultant and coordinator at Fortis.
The pill has been available in India since 2001 under various brand names like E-Pill, EC2 and Pill72, but was available only on prescription earlier.

It needs to be used within 72 hours of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy. It was made an OTC drug last year with the aim of preventing unnecessary abortions.
The general misconception which leads people to use the pill indiscriminately as against using it only when the regular method of contraception fails is that since the pill does not need to be taken regularly, it must be safer than contraceptive pills that need to be taken on daily basis.

But doctors warn that regular use of the morning after pill can have damaging effects on the body.
"It can lead hormonal problems and cycle irregularities. As the cycle becomes irregular, the failure rate of the pill also becomes higher, causing pregnancy.
Oral contraceptive pills are much safer," said Dr Verma. The carcinogenic characteristics have also not been ruled out. "We have seen an almost 25% increase in the number of pills being sold after the sales became OTC and most buyers are teenagers," said an employee at Batra Chemists at Saket in south Delhi.
Not only does the rise of teenage sex lead to more pregnancies but also greater misuse of such drugs. Dr Pushpa Singh, head of department of gynaecology, RML Hospital said: "Teenage sex is definitely on the rise though, I think it will be another 10-12 years before girls come out openly and say they are on pills."

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