There are many different types of birth control, but they all have one thing in common - to prevent unplanned pregnancy. There's one type of birth control, however, that's being recalled because it's not doing the one job it was made to do.
If you're taking this birth control or know someone who is, you're going to want to read this.
The Department of Health and Human Services defines birth control pills, also known as oral contraceptives or just “the pill,” as types of medications taken daily by women in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies. While the majority of women choose to take birth control pills so they don’t risk becoming pregnant accidentally, a small percentage also take them for other reasons, including to regulate or temporarily stop their menstrual cycles or reduce symptoms associated with PMS and/or hormonal imbalances (such as acne, heavy bleeding during menstruation or painful cramps).
There are dozens of different brands of birth control pills, with most falling into one of two categories: combined pills or progestin-only pills.
Birth control pills, patches and shots promote continuously raised estrogen levels in a woman’s body, something that’s neither natural nor very safe. A woman’s natural menstrual cycle is composed of rising and falling levels of estrogen and progesterone throughout the month. Birth control pills work by keeping estrogen at an unnaturally high level all month long — high enough to even fool the body into thinking it’s already pregnant! Since the body perceives high estrogen levels as a sign of pregnancy, it stops ovulating, and therefore when taking the pill another pregnancy cannot occur.
Even though they're most reliable, it's true that birth control pills fail sometimes.
Planned Parenthood says that less than one woman will become pregnant, but because there are no fractional women, and because claiming 100 percent efficacy can be dangerous, they must only claim that it works to prevent pregnancy more than 99 percent of the time. As a Planned Parenthood clinic manager with a Responsible Sexuality Educator certificate, I know that the odds of you becoming pregnant with perfect use are so small that you can feel confident taking it — as long as you know what to do should one of the following situations occur.
One common type of emergency contraception is OTC morning-after pills like Plan B and Next Choice, which use levonorgestrel, a synthetic version of the hormone progesterone, to delay ovulation, according to Planned Parenthood. The prescription morning-after pill is called Ella, and it uses a drug called ulipristal acetate to do the same thing.
ParaGard, the copper IUD, is well-known for being a great birth control option in general, but it can also serve as emergency contraception when inserted within five days after unprotected sex. ParaGard creates a toxic environment for sperm, and it prevents pregnancy more than 99.9 percent of the time.
Lastly, you can take multiple doses of regular birth control pills as emergency contraception, although you have to be precise about it, so one of the above options will always be your best bet.
Morning-after pills like Plan B and Next Choice are effective if you take them within five days of unprotected sex. The major caveat here is that they work best when taken within 72 hours, then the efficacy starts dropping.
Within three days after unprotected sex, these kinds of morning-after pills are between 75 and 89 percent effective at preventing pregnancy, according to Planned Parenthood. “The sooner you take it, the better it’s going to work,” Mary Jane Minkin, M.D., a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale Medical School, tells SELF.
Although levonorgestrel-based options like Plan B and Next Choice prevent pregnancy up to five days after unprotected sex, think of those first 72 hours as prime time.
Ella, the prescription morning-after pill, is also effective for up to five days, but it’s equally as effective the entire time, Katharine O'Connell White, M.D., M.P.H., director of fellowship in family planning, Boston University/Boston Medical Center, tells SELF. Ella decreases your risk of getting pregnant by 85 percent if you take it within the appropriate window.
ParaGard also needs to be inserted within that five-day window in order to be effective.
At first, emergency contraception relied on estrogen to do its job, Minkin explains. “The estrogen in these things—they used mondo doses—used to make people nauseated,” she says. Now, forms of EC like Plan B and Ella don’t rely on estrogen, so nausea is less likely, but it can still happen, especially due to nerves. But if you take multiple birth control pills as your EC, there’s a decent chance you could Ralph. “That’s great in a pinch, but it often leads to nausea and vomiting, which is a risk factor for failure,” White says.
No matter what, if you throw up within an hour or so of taking EC, you’ll need another dose. Your body might not have had enough time to metabolize it, White explains. “It’s really unlikely that this would happen after around an hour, but if you ever vomit and can see a pill, that’s a concern,” White says, and you should probably take another.
Although BMI is a tricky measure for things like health, it does come into play with EC. According to Planned Parenthood, if your BMI is over 25, morning-after pills like Plan B are less likely to be effective. “It has to do with the distribution of the drug,” White explains. Ella’s threshold is higher—it doesn’t start to have a decreased effectiveness until your BMI is over 35.
“Being obese or overweight doesn’t render emergency contraception ineffective, just less effective,” Minkin says. In this instance, the copper IUD can be an especially great option for EC. “ParaGard will work very nicely as emergency contraception in someone with a higher BMI, and the other advantage is it will give you long-term contraception anyway,” Minkin says.
If you happen to have unprotected sex during your fertile window—four days before you ovulate, the day you ovulate, and the day after you're just naturally more likely to get pregnant, White explains. Morning-after pills prevent pregnancy by delaying ovulation, so if ovulation has already occurred, your EC can’t stop you from getting pregnant.
The only exception to this rule is the ParaGard IUD. “It’s the best emergency contraception we have. Because it works by inhibiting sperm, the timing in your cycle doesn’t matter as much,” White says.
Sometimes people think that after a dose of EC, they a sexual get-out-of-jail-free card, White explains. “Ovulation is just delayed, not stopped, so further acts of unprotected sex put you in the line of fire,” she says.
Once more, with feeling: Everyone makes mistakes. If you need emergency contraception, there’s no reason to feel down on yourself. The issue is when it becomes a habit. “If you find yourself needing morning-after contraception on several occasions, it’s not dangerous, but we can do better,” Minkin says. “If you’re sick of taking birth control pills, we can get you an IUD, the Nexplanon implant, or something else—there are lots of options, and you don’t have to rely on morning-after contraception.”
There are many different types of birth control, but they all have one thing in common - to prevent unplanned pregnancy. There's one type of birth control, however, that's being recalled because it's not doing the one job it was made to do.
The FDA announced that a birth control pill called Mibelas 24 F-E is being recalled because the pack of pills was rotated 180 degrees in the packaging. This made the expiration date impossible to see and flipped the packet of tablets upside down.
For people trying to avoid pregnancy, this can be potentially dangerous. KTLA states, "An unintended pregnancy may cause significant adverse maternal or fetal health consequences, including death."
The company responsible for the pills, Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc., is sending out recall letters and making sure the defective contraceptive packets can be returned. The FDA is encouraging everyone who has this product to contact their doctor and take the pills back to the pharmacy the got them from.
If you use this type of birth control, return it to your pharmacy immediately. Even if you don't, share this to warn others who might be putting themselves at risk of pregnancy.
