Overweight women denied morning-after pill: reports
Leaders in women’s health are alarmed by reports some Canadian pharmacists are refusing to sell the “morning-after” pill to overweight women, based on what experts say is little evidence the drugs may be less effective in heavier individuals.
The pills, designed to help prevent pregnancy up to 72 hours after unprotected sex, were given full over-the-counter status in most provinces in Canada in 2008, allowing women to buy emergency contraceptives directly from a pharmacist, without a doctor’s prescription or after a medical consultation with the druggist.
But a recent report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Canada’s top medical journal, has re-ignited a controversy over whether new weight limits unfairly restrict access to Plan B and other emergency contraceptives.
Last year, Health Canada told manufacturers to add new warnings about the pills, advising women the drugs are less effective in those weighing 75 to 80 kilograms, and totally ineffective in women over 80 kg.
The warnings were based on the results of two clinical studies, and were not supported by groups such as the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC).
When CMAJ writer Lauren Vogel, who is married, tried to buy the pills from a drugstore in Ottawa, she was turned away and told to see a doctor.
“I walked up to the counter and I asked for the drug and she (the pharmacist) looked at me — I was wearing a winter coat — and based on that told me, ‘ Are you aware of the weight restrictions? I can’t sell you this, it’s not going to work for you,’ ” she said.
Vogel said the pharmacist didn’t ask her weight. “I was shocked she would judge it based on looks alone.”
She was able to buy the pill in another store.
“Most women over 165 pounds (75 kg) aren’t obese,” Vogel said, adding a “huge gamut of women” in Canada fall in that weight category.
Twenty-three per cent of women of child-bearing age in Canada are obese, according to Statistics Canada, and obesity rates are rising fastest in the 25to 34-year-old age group.