You are not ready to become a mother, or yet, you are still a teenager and you made a mistake. You had unprotected sex and now you would like to go back and fix it. Well, now you can. It doesn’t require a prescription from your physician, and you don’t need to go to a hospital. There is a backup plan called Plan B One Step or more commonly known as the morning-after pill. So when do you need to use morning-after pill? Plan B One Step will give you a chance to go back in time and undo things. If you forgot to use your birth control pills, if your condom broke, if you missed 2 or more birth control pills that month, you can prevent pregnancy with Plan B One Step. It WILL not protect you if you are already pregnant, Will not protect you against STD (sexually transmitted diseases) or if you had sex AFTER you took the morning after pill. Also, don’t take Plan B if you are allergic to an active ingredient in the pill, or you are already pregnant or have a history of abnormal vaginal bleeding. So what is the morning after pill and how does it work? It is a high dose of levonorgestrel-1.5mg, which is found in regular birth control pills. It helps prevent pregnancy when taken within 72 hours (3 days) after unprotected sex or birth control failure. The sooner it’s taken, the better it works. After the dose is consumed it works in two different ways: it prevents ovulation and it interferes with fertilization of an egg. Plan B is affective 89% after 72 hours and 95% after 24 hours. Please note that if you vomit with 2 hours of taking the pill, the method might not be effective. You should expect some side effects associated with this regimen. The most common side effects are nausea and vomiting. You may also experience headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and unexpected bleeding.
We all have choices to make and we want to make sure we have all possibilities to choose from. As a pharmacist I am always here for my patients to educate them and to help them to choose the most effective and safe method for them.