Our life if full of surprises: sometimes good and sometimes nasty. It is not rare that things do not go as planned and even the most reliable techniques fail. Even in case of modern birth control methods, which ensure up to 99.9% reliability, surprises do happen sometimes, and most of them are nasty. However, people invented many techniques or backup methods to neutralize the effect of nasty surprises. Speaking about contraception such back-up method is called Plan B.
What is Plan B?
Plan B belongs to the group of emergency contraceptives, commonly known as “morning-after pills”, which are used to prevent unwanted pregnancy after unprotected sex, primary contraceptive failure or sexual assault.
The active ingredient of Plan B is levonorgestrel, the same hormone, which can be found in many oral contraceptives for daily use. The only difference is that Plan B contains larger dose of this hormone. That is why Plan B should never be used on a regular basis. It is only for emergency cases, for example, when a woman forgot to take two or more daily contraceptive pills during a month or the condom broke during sexual intercourse.
Besides, it should be underlined, that Plan B is not an abortion pill. It means that Plan B works only to prevent pregnancy, and it will never work or somehow affect the baby if a woman is already pregnant.
How does Plan B work?
In order to prevent pregnancy after the unprotected sex Plan B works in several directions. It prevents the release of an egg from the ovary and it also prevents the fertilization of an egg. This means that after taking Plan B the female organism stops releasing an egg from ovary and makes it impossible for a sperm to fertilize an egg, which has already been released.
Besides, Plan B may prevent pregnancy even after the fertilization of an egg by some extremely nimble spermatozoid. In this case, the medication prevents the fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus, which makes impossible the further development of pregnancy.
How to take Plan B?
There are two pills of Plan B in the package. The first pill should be taken as soon as possible within 72 hours after the unprotected sex occurred. The second pill should be taken in 12 hours after taking the firs pill.
Effectiveness and safety of Plan B
Using Plan B reduces the chances to get pregnant after the unprotected sex by up to 89%. Besides, the sooner one takes the medication, the more effective it is in preventing unwanted pregnancy.
From the point of view of Plan B safety, it should be noted that using this medication is quite safe and does not lead to serious side effects. Nausea, stomach pain, headache, dizziness, breast tenderness, as well as certain changes of the menstruation are considered to be the most common side effects, caused by Plan B.
How to get Plan B?
Nowadays Plan B is available without prescription for women age 18 and older. However, till recently this medication has been available only with prescription, but lately the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the OTC use of Plan B. However, women 17 or younger still require the prescription to get this medication.
Nick
| Tip for you : Sign-in with Your OpenID and post faster, easier and with easy access to all your past posts. | |
|
Your Nick: |
