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Reuters
One million packets of birth control pills, including Lo/Ovral-28, have been recalled because they may not contain enough contraceptive to prevent pregnancy.
If you’ve been taking the birth control pills that were recalled Wednesday, there are some simple steps you can take to protect yourself against an unwanted pregnancy.
Pfizer announced that it had voluntarily recalled14 lots of Lo/Ovral-28 tablets, which contain the hormones norgestrel and ethinyl estradiol and 14 lots of generic versions of the pill—a total of 1 million pill packs—because of a packaging error.
The problem, according to Pfizer, was that some of the packs contained an incorrect number of inactive or active ingredient tablets and the tablets might be in the wrong order.
The pills come in blister packs of 28. The active ingredient pills, taken for the first three weeks, are white-ish in color, while the inactive pills, taken for the last week to help women keep track of when they should begin their next pack of pills, are pinkish.
On YouTube, Pfizer’s chief medical officer, Dr. Freda Lewis-Hall, said perhaps as few as 30 packets were affected, but the company pulled entire lots to be on the safe side.
“We understand that this news can be very concerning and confusing for any woman who takes birth control pills to protect against unintended pregnancies,” Lewis-Hall said in the video.
If you’ve been taking one of the recalled pills, check the lot number on the package to see if it’s one that’s been recalled. Both Pfizer and the Food and Drug Administration have posted the lot numbers.
If you discover you have been taking pills from an affected lot, “assume that you do not have any birth control protection,” advises Dr. Kristen Eckler, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and instructor at Harvard Medical School.
If you’ve had sexual intercourse in the last few days, Eckler says, she would “strongly encourage” you use emergency contraception as soon as possible if you want to avoid an unintended pregnancy. Plan B, available without a prescription to those 17 and older, is effective up to three days after unprotected sex, while prescription ella works up to five days afterward.
When you return your recalled pills to your pharmacy, you could obtain a new pack and start taking pills right away, Eckler says. You might have some minor breakthrough bleeding, breast tenderness or digestive tract upset, she says, but those should pass in a few days.
Because you can’t be sure where you are hormonally, Eckler says, you “absolutely have to use a barrier method (a male or female condom) during that first new pill pack.”
If birth control pills have been an effective method of birth control for you in the past, don't give up on them, she says.
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What do do if you've been taking the recalled birth control pills:
Start using the back door for a while instead
OUCH
Cross your legs.
OMG that's hilarious.
Start saving money... You have 9 months...
Viking - I thought I was going to be the first one to post that line. Dang!
Paint the room either yellow or green. At least you'll be safe in that!
If anyone who took these pills becomes pregnant, and chooses to carry the pregnancy to term, then give up the child for adoption, there should be a line wrapped around the building of 'right-to-lifers', waiting their turn for the opportunity to raise it.
and yet another provides an example supporting abortion.
Wow! "Protect" against pregnancy? Last I heard, pregnancy does not pose a risk to your health. Birth control is to PREVENT pregnancy, and everybody knows that it's not 100% guaranteed. If you are pregnant and you take Plan B or ella pills, you are killing your baby. And when you do decide that you want a family, your baby will be 70% more likely to die, because you have aborted.
Yes pregnancy is a health risk. The USA is about number forty in the world in maternal mortality but the percentage is still low. The risk is much, much higher in countries like Haiti or Afghanistan.
Are you people aware of how overpopulated this world is? Are you going to care for thousands of unwanted children?
"Last I heard, pregnancy does not pose a risk to your health."
Because women never die from child birth or have complications during pregnancy.
Wow October Breeze, there is so much wrong with everything you posted, I don't even know where to begin. How about you prove some of your "statistics," because I am certain they are made up. I will start you off, Plan B is not the abortion pill. I am sure what you are thinking of is RU489. Your turn.
it is particularly high around Planned Parenthood facilities.
Agree completely Rosie-2778319. No studies have shown Plan B causing any risk to a developing fetus. In fact, if you take Plan B while pregnant, you will not abort the pregnancy. If you have had sex in the past few days while taking an affected pill pack, it is strongly encouraged to take precaution and take Plan B if you do not want to be pregnant. While Pregnancy cannot be compared to any illness by any means (and all of us without any serious condition are very fortunate given how many illnesses exist today), not everyone WANTS to be pregnant at this stage in their lives (especially younger teens) and abortion is not always an option for women strongly against abortion for personal moral reasons. Thus, it is unfortunate that a mistake has been made with these packs. While I agree adoption is an option for many, I think people are forgetting that the woman has to carry the baby for 9 months, and for a young adult this is not always ideal if the goal is school, job, marriage, and then childbirth. The fault of Akrimax should not be blamed on the consumer of the pack for trusting their birth control (when told it prevents pregnancy in ~99% of those using it correctly). This mistake may cause an unfortunate scary situation for many young women who are just not ready or prepared for pregnancy...
Most Republicans now are religious fanatics but you see how well that worked out for Newt Gingrich - a cheater and liar. I never did care about the "Pink Ribbon" campaign. Mitt Romney put it perfectly when he said I don't worry about the "poor" people - he is so out of touch that he doesn't realize that alot of "middle" class people cannot afford health care either. So if the "pink Ribbon" organization is tied to politics - screw them.
I, too, will refuse to support and donate to the Susan G. Komen foundation based on their caving to right-wing wackos to deny funding to an organazation that provides reproductive and women's health services to a wide swath of the population. What the nutjobs need to realize is that with low-cost or no-cost birth control, there should be less abortions. Planned Parenthood is a huge provider and educator on birth control, STD treatment, mammograms, etc. This war on Planned Parenthood needs some defenders.
To answer your headline, not sure what to do, but I think it is pretty obvious what NOT to do.
Pull out!
I have always supported Susan G. Komen. I would buy things because a percentage would go to Komen, donated time and money. NO LONGER. I used Planned Parenthood and it does so much for women not just abortions.
All you babies born in the next nine months should own this comapany before you know why.Best medicine in the word.Whops most expensive I mean.
.
Not having sex comes to mind.
Sure - why not give up sex? It's not like it's important to women or anything....geez, I feel bad for your wife/husband if you have/ever will have one...
If I understand this article correctly, the problem isn't the color of the pills, just that there has been a mix up in the amount and order. If this is the case why not just look at your pack to determine if you have the correct pills? My guess is if you have taken these for a while it would be pretty obvious if the amount and order of pills were mixed up.
It also seems obvious to me that any woman can tell which pills are which. Most women don't take the inactive pills at all. It's pretty self-explanatary that you take the 21 pills that are the same color, and the different color ones last.
An aspirin held between your knees will prevent pregnancy.
Plan B, pray, pregnancy, or celibacy. Great choices.
Definitely have an abortion. And sue the drug company. No excuse for unwanted kids. Abortion is a fundamental right, all you bible huggers. I don't care what you think anyway.