Morning-after pill doesn't dent pregnancy rate

by Brian White (Subscribe to Brian White's posts)
Apr 18th 2007 1:09PM

If you've used the "Plan B" morning-after form of birth control, you're in a pretty large group right now. The morning after pill was rejected for OTC sale then approved as an OTC item recently -- and since, sales of the morning-after pill have done nothing but go up.

But it's not helping the overall pregnancy rate in the population, according to researchers. The morning after pill seems to work for individual women, though. Why aren't the numbers of pregnancies declining, then?

The researchers for this study stated that easy access to emergency contraception does not reduce unintended pregnancy rates. Are women not taking the pill as required or without counseling on how to properly use the product, then?

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Christi 4-18-2007 @ 7:56PM

Plan B works by introducing Progestin into the body to trick the body into think it is already pregnant. If the woman has already ovulated then it’s too late. I just wonder if Plan B would have a higher success rate if women used sympto-thermal methods of cycle tracking to pinpoint the day of ovulation. I mean, if a woman knows she’s likely to ovulate within the next few days, she might be more motivated to obtain and take it immediately whereas, if a woman’s cycle is one big blurry thing to her, her motivation might be lower.