City Teens make a habit of popping morning-after pill

Ignoring the emergency in emergency contraceptives and ignorant of the side-effects of frequent use, collegians keep buying the over-the-counter pills as chemists report soaring sales in past few months

City Teens make a habit of popping morning-after pill

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An alarmingu00a0rise in the sale of over-the-counter (OTC) emergency contraceptive pills has been reported in Bangalore over the past few months by medical stores, which also say that most of the purchasers are college girls and many are repeat customers.

Though there is no official data available yet, it seems city teenagers are making a habit of popping the OTC pills though these are meant only for emergencies, as frequent use can have serious side effects.

Chemists in the city said sales of emergency contraceptive pills had gone up by 70 per cent in the past eight months, and could be said to have soared in the past two months.

They felt this was because of advertising on TV.

"People have stopped going to doctors," said a chemist, requesting anonymity. "Most of the time, these pills are sold over-the-counter without a doctor's prescription."

Many chemists said they knew there were chances of side effects if the pills were consumed frequently.

"These pills are mostly purchased by students rather than married women. Most married women will be using regular birth control pills anyway, and they go for these morning-after pills only in emergencies," said M Srinivas of Balaji Medicals. "After these emergency drugs hit the market, the youth lost all fear of getting pregnant, but by consuming these tablets frequently many of them suffer from side effects. Such tablets should be consumed only after consulting a doctor."

Hormonal changes
Gynaecologists said the regular use of emergency contraceptive pills is as dangerous as smoking and the government should enforce warning messages on covers, just as it does with cigarette packs.

"Taking emergency contraceptive pills often results in vastly undesirable hormonal changes in the person. After taking these pills the patient should be monitored by a doctor closely," said Anuradha S, a gynaecologist. "I will be very happy if these emergency contraceptive pills are banned or restricted."

Recently, the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) did express its concern over the OTC nature of the emergency contraceptive pills and said it was thinking over whether it should restrict the availability of the fast-moving pills to only those with a doctor's prescription.

"These pills have high dose of hormones and should be consumed under the guidance of a doctor," said Shalini B K, a gynaecologist. "As they say 'Cigarette smoking is injurious to health' on cigarette packets, a statutory warning should be carried on emergency contraceptives also."

Advertising blitz
In the past the use of the pills was largely limited to victims of sexual assault, but now advertising had ensured it had become common.

Chemists said the fast-moving brands were 'I-pill' followed by Mankind's 'Unwanted-72', with 'Pill-72' at third place in terms of sales. Many of them said the sales figures followed the pattern of visibility through advertising, with the more advertised brands leading the pack in terms of sales.

"Definitely, the sales of contraceptive pills have increased, especially over the past two months," said Vijaykumar of Sri Balaji Medicals. "These drugs are being misused by the students. Most of those who purchase these drugs are college students. Some of them come here and buy pills despite buying condoms, just to be on the safer side. I think all this is because of the ads on the television."

Not a sure-fire thing
Anuradha also said an emergency contraceptive pill did not completely rule out pregnancy.

"Many a times it won't work and the pregnancy continues," said Anuradha. "There is a chance of having tubal pregnancy which is a threat to the mother."

The doctor added that she feared there were many untrustworthy companies selling such pills.
"The medical abortion rates have come down but complicated abortion cases have increased," said Anuradha.

Problems conceiving
Shalini said there could be problems conceiving later because of frequent use.

"Teenagers use these emergency contraceptives as they have to escape the immediate danger of pregnancy but don't think of their future. They will have to suffer a lot in the future and many don't know sometimes it will be difficult for them to conceive," said Shalini. "These emergency pills should be used once in a lifetime. Over-the-counter sale should stop."

Right now, it is difficult to even know if somebody is using emergency contraceptives too often, as chemist Sunil Kumar said, "I have sold these drugs mostly to new faces. People usually go to a new locality to purchase such drugs."

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