Women who rush to buy Plan B after having unprotected sexual intercourse may be unnecessarily exposing themselves to dangerously high levels of hormones, says a Chicago-area pregnancy center.
Plan B’s hormone dosage is ten times higher than that of normal birth control pills using the same hormone, according to FDA research. Taking it may be unnecessary, depending upon when a woman has had intercourse during her cycle, says WomanCare Services in Berwyn, IL.
It has been WomanCare Services’ experience that most of their clients interested in Plan B are probably not fertile at the time they come for a consultation.
Before FDA’s 2006 approval of Plan B, distributed by Duramed Pharmaceuticals, FDA researcher Alex Jordan testified that “this high dose, which is 10 times higher than the normal OC [oral contraceptive]
In another testimony, researcher Peter M. Vander Bleek testified to the FDA during the Plan B’s hearings that Barr Labs, the manufacturer of Plan B, should acknowledge that “the effects of a drug therapy are often as dependent on the dosage level of a drug as they are on the drug itself.”
Drug labeling for Plan B states that common side effects associated with it include “nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, tiredness, diarrhea, dizziness, breast pain, headache, and menstrual changes.”
Women in Berwyn, Cicero, N. Riverside, Forest Park and other nearby communities in Illinois who have forgotten to take their birth control pill, or who had unprotected sex should first determine the likelihood of getting pregnant at that point in their cycles before running the risks of Plan B side effects. They can call WomanCare Services at 708-795-6000 for a free consultation before taking Plan B. Or go to http://www.womancare.org.
