Now is the time to start stockpiling Birth Control Pills & EC

[LynneSin]

With states banning abortions and courts upholding the Catholic Hospitals rights to not dispense EC to rape victims, now is the time for everyone to start stockpiling birth control pills and emergency contraceptives. SHould someone you love be raped, do not let them suffer because of the asinine beliefs of a doctor, hospital policy or fundamentalist pharmacist. By ensuring that you have a stash of Emergency Contraceptives (EC) or Birth Control Pills (BCP - which can be used as EC in a pinch), you might be able to help someone else in need who is facing dire circumstances and assholes who think they know better. ANd with RoeVWade hanging in balance - stashing these products can be a preferred method as oppose to back-alley abortions done with coat-hangers and other sick devices. If I knew someone in South Dakota in need of help, FedEx delivers overnight and I could help get product out quickly to someone in need.

And I know that for you guys, not like you can ask your doctor for BCP, but if EC is available over the counter, why not grab a few to hold on to incase that is your wife, your mother, your daughter, your neighbor dealing with rape and unable to get simple help to prevent one of the cruelest things to come of a rape.

This is Planned Parenthood's recipe list of converting BCP into EC

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/medicalinfo/ec/fact-emergency-contraception.xml#

The Yuzpe Regimen

This method of emergency contraception is named for Canadian Professor A. Albert Yuzpe who published the first studies demonstrating the method's safety and efficacy in 1974. This regimen uses two doses of oral contraceptive pills that combine estrogen and certain progestin hormones (FDA, 1997). It can reduce the risk of pregnancy if taken within 120 hours (five days) of unprotected intercourse. The treatment is more effective the sooner it begins (Ellertson, et al., 2003; "FDA Approves...", 1999; Rodrigues, et al., 2001; Stewart, et al., 2004). (Because the emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) have a five-day window of effectiveness, the popular term "morning-after pill" is misleading.) The doses are taken 12 hours apart. Various prescription products contain the appropriate hormone combination and can be used as ECPs:


Many common oral contraceptive pills can be used as ECPs, although their manufacturers do not label the pills for this use. "Off-label" use of approved medications is legal and commonplace in American medicine. Further, in February 1997, the FDA declared emergency use of birth control pills, following the Yuzpe regimen, to be safe and effective. At that time, six suitable pill brands were available on the U.S. market (FDA, 1997). Currently, the following brands can be used as ECPs in the U.S.:


Pill Brand Manufacturer Pills per Dose

Brand NameManufacturer Dosage
Alesse® Wyeth-Ayerst 5 pink pills
Aviane® Barr 5 orange pills
Cryselle® Barr 4 white pills
Enpress® Barr 4 orange pills
Lessina® Barr 5 pink pills
Levlen® Berlex 4 light-orange pills
Levlite® Berlex 5 pink pills
Levora® Watson 4 white pills
Lo/Ovral® Wyeth-Ayerst 4 white pills
Low-Ogestrel® Watson 4 white pills
LuteraTM® Watson 5 white pills
Nordette® Wyeth-Ayerst 4 light-orange pills
Ogestrel® Watson 2 white pills
Ovral® Wyeth-Ayerst 2 white pills
Portia® Barr 4 pink pills
Seasonale® Barr 4 pink pills
Tri-Levlen® Berlex 4 yellow pills
Triphasil® Wyeth-Ayerst 4 yellow pills
Trivora® Watson 4 pink pills

[MissB]

1. Don't they expire?

Good idea, but don't all medicines have an expiration date?

[LynneSin]

5. But what is an expiration date?

Other than a ploy to keep you getting more product.

I would assume that if the drug is stored in proper conditions they would be fine for some time after their expiration date. ANd it's not like I'm going to need a full years worth of product - maybe keep 3-4 months on hand and only start buying more should I run out.

[Beaverhausen]

6. I think they may lose their effectiveness after a while

Might not want to chance it.

I really hope that it doesn't come to the point where contraceptives are illegal. Call me crazy but, while I see abortion rights slowly being eroded, I think big pharma won't allow BC to become illegal.

[TheWraith]

8. Not really, no.

Expiration dates are not just a money grab. Medicine really does go bad. If you don't believe me, ask the doctors in third-world countries who receive the outdated "donations" of pharmaceutical companies.

In any event, aren't you being a little overzealous? The handful of pharmacists and hospitals that won't offer such things are dwarfed by the numbers that do. It's not like they're going to become illegal or something.

[LynneSin]

9. I hope you don't live in South Dakota or Mississippi

or a host of the other states starting to go after RoeVWade.

And what if I was knocked out cold after being raped? My closest hospital is a Catholic hospital and I'd be in a situation where it is known that they will not give out EC. Plus, as other posters have mentioned, there are areas in the more rural parts of the country where the Catholic Hospital in the only choice. I mean, we all can't live in urban WIlmington DE where I have hospital choices AND a pro-choice environment

[jilln]

2. how can you stockpile?

Don't you need a prescription for birth control pills? That would mean you can only buy a pack a month for how every many months the prescription is. No stockpiling allowed.

There's always Mexico!

[MissB]

3. I could stockpile.

I don't need bc pills - dh was snipped - but I could still get a prescription from my doctor for them if I wanted.

[LynneSin]

4. I'm not dating anyone right now so I could start stockpiling

I mean, I'm not going to pull a Rush Limbaugh and start doctor shopping trying to get more than one per month. But I'm figuring I could probably get about a years worth stashed away. And someone else mentioned expiration date. I would try to do my best to preserve the pills in optimum storage so they do not go bad. Half the time expiration dates are just to keep you buying more drugs because you assume the drug is now bad

[bluedeminredstate]

7. The expiration date on the big-ass bottle

the pharmacist pours from to make your little bottle is usually far different than the bottle you get (I know BC pills are prepackaged, but not sure about EC pills). A script in a bottle given to a patient usually has an exp. date of 1 year from the date of the script, but the master bottle that the pills came from probably has an exp. date of several more years. My friend who is a pharmacist says the exp. dates on patients' meds are not always b/c of degeneration of meds, but to keep people from accumulating tons of bottles of pills and safety concerns and also to keep the product moving.

[LynneSin]

10. I use to work in the Pharmaceutical Industry

I'm guessing you have about 2-3 years more shelf life than what is on the package you get from the pharmacy