Sarah Lynch, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Once available, Opill will be the most effective form of nonprescription birth control on the market. But you should still speak with your health care provider about any questions.
Oral contraceptives modify the menstrual cycle. What’s less well known is that they also reach the brain, particularly the regions important for regulating emotions.
Sarah Lynch, Binghamton University, State University of New York
The new over-the-counter pill is highly effective at preventing pregnancy but must be taken at the same time daily, which can be a limitation for some people.
With the approval of the first over-the-counter oral contraceptive, pharmacists stand to play an ever-increasing role in helping expand access to reproductive health care in the post-Roe era.
Some states already allow pharmacists to provide birth control to patients with a prescription. But FDA approval of an over-the-counter birth control pill could greatly expand access.
Prominent GP and former MP Kerryn Phelps has weighed into the doctor-pharmacist turf war, saying pharmacists shouldn’t prescribe because of their financial interests. But the evidence says otherwise.
Whether women should need a prescription to get the pill has long been controversial. But making it available over the counter would compromise the provision of comprehensive women’s health care.
New modelling shows skipping the need for a doctors’ prescription and going straight to a pharmacist for the pill could save the health system A$96 million a year and improve women’s health outcomes.
Endometriosis is cut or vaporised with an electric current or laser. It ranges from a simple, 20 minute operation to complex surgery involving important organs such as the bowel and bladder.
Male contraceptives have been under development for at least the past 50 years, because of the success of the female pill and pessimism about men taking a pill.
There are more than 30 different types of contraceptive pills. But brand names such as Microgynon, Levlen, Yaz and Brenda give little indication of the ingredients, dose or who should use them.
Women on the pill are able to manipulate or suppress their menstrual cycles to have fewer “periods”, or to avoid bleeding at important or inconvenient times.
Gynaecology Unit Head the Royal Women’s Hospital and Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, The University of Melbourne