A funny(?) story about EC–and a Challenge
- Posted by Peach on May 14th, 2007 filed in Contraception, Emergency Contraception, Challenges
Like many women, I have frequently been unable to take oral contraceptives when they didn’t agree with my body. Fortunately, science keeps experimenting and eventually came up with a product that didn’t create incredible discomfort or inconvenience for me–but prior to that, I relied on condoms as my primary form of birth control. Condoms can be effective when used consistently and correctly, but accidents do happen, even for the most conscientious of lovers.
Fortunately, there have only been two instances in my sexual career that I have needed to acquire emergency contraception due to condom failure. EC should not be confused with abortifacient drugs such as RU-486, which is sometimes called the abortion pill. Rather, emergency contraceptives such as Plan B contain essentially the same components as regular birth control pills but in a higher dose; they, like regular birth control pills, prevent an egg from adhering to the lining of the uterus. Plan B is now ostensibly approved for over-the-counter purchase in the US.
But as luck would have it, the first of instances occurred while I was in Italy.
Wine-drunk and travel-fatigued, we didn’t realize there had been a condom breakage until the following morning–when we were supposed to be boarding a train for Pompei. I had just enough time to scurry off to a farmacia and explain my situation to a very patient pharmacist. She replied in English that normally I’d need a prescription from a doctor, but since I was away from home, I could go to a hospital for a prescription. I didn’t know any hospitals in Pompei, so the backup plan was to call my ob-gyn and ask him to fax a prescription to a farmacia in Pompei–a scheme that relied on (a) finding an internet point to locate the doctor’s phone number, (b) finding an international pay phone to call him, (c) getting his consent, and (d) finding a farmacia that would agree to this arrangement.
No worries, right?
But the afternoon was a comedy of errors, with obstacle after obstacle delaying our arrival in Pompei, and I got more and more anxious as the afternoon wore on–most farmacie close at 8 pm. When we finally made it to a hotel, I practically threw my luggage down and barrelled down the hill into the town proper. Fortune was in my favor, and the first building I found that was related to my mission happened to be a hospital.
Nobody there particularly seemed to be working; there was a row of be-scrubbed medical personnel on the balcony, smoking and talking on cell phones. I walked right in, didn’t see an information desk, and kept walking until a janitor stopped me and asked me if I needed any help. My Italian is patchy at best, and in this high-stress situation I could barely string a sentence together. I began to say “I need…” and trailed off uselessly.
“Avete un problema?” the janitor prompted. I nodded.
“Un problema ginecologica?” he asked. I was a little prudishly offended, but indicated that this was so.
The janitor told me to follow a woman who stood silently on a staircase, who turned without a word and started upstairs. On the next floor, she pointed me to a youngish male doctor, who smiled pleasantly at me, but didn’t speak much English.
I faltered. “Emergency contraception . . . contraceptione emergenzia? Morning after pill?”
“Un momento,” said the doctor, “Sono un ostetrico.” He mimed a pregnant belly and a cradled infant.
“Oh. . .” I trailed off. “Non capisco… Ho bisogno…”
“Un momento.” He beckoned over a nurse, and told me she spoke English.
“Parla inglese?” I asked her. She shrugged expressively.
“Ou le francais?”I offered. “Je peux parler francais or English.”
“English, please.” she said, and I repeated my broken request. We all three gestured wildly at each other for a minute, and then somehow we all reached a moment of revelation. They beckoned me into an examining room so we could all have this pantomimed conversation more comfortably.
“Allora,” said the doctor, and uttered a string of words that ended in Levonelle. Levonelle appeared to be the brand of EC available in Italy. I wasn’t sure, but I agreed.
“E per, um, how do you say, ’sex.’”
“Si,” I said helpfully, “e per “after.” The Italian word for “after” escaped me, so I illustrated the passage of time by gesturing vaguely to the right.
“E per meurt… um, mord… to make dead the. . .” the doctor gestured to his belly.
I was a little scandalized, but I nodded.
“When was the. . .” the nurse began, and crooked two fingers of each hand like legs, knocking them together suggestively.
I estimated the time and gestured vaguely to the left to indicate the night before.
The nurse asked, “When is your next cycle?” and traced a circle in the air. Somewhere in the melange of languages, we’d lost track of which languages needed pantomime.
I named a frighteningly close date, waving vaguely to the right.
“OK,” said the doctor, tearing off a scrap of plain typing paper. “What is. . . what is you name?” He laughed.
I laughed too. There was, after all, an appreciably high level of absurdity at play here! I told him my name and handed him my ID for good measure.
“OK,” he said, scribbling on the scrap. “Prenda oralmente“–he mimed the act of swallowing a pill–”volta per volta.”
“Volta per… oh! Capisco.” I had a dim memory of museum lines, signs that warned “one at a time please.” Relieved to have a prescription in my hands and aware of the twenty remaining minutes to complete this delicate mission, I asked “Dove e la farmacia piu vicina?”
The doctor and nurse gestured hilariously in different directions.
This farce was followed by a few more hijinks–the pharmacists were extremely suspicious of my torn-off scrap of prescription, and pretended not to understand when I asked in three languages to read the Levonelle label (I still wasn’t sure my hospital transaction had landed me the right pill), and insisted that I empty my change purse into my hand so that they could count out the exact change on what was actually a reasonably inexpensive purchase. (Something like 11 Euro, I recall.) Still, the Levonelle was obtained and crisis was averted. I swore that I’d inquire into more reliable birth control options at my next yearly exam.
The second incident occurred not long after the Pompei fiasco, after I had safely returned to Philadelphia but before I resumed experimentation with oral contraceptives. That time, though, we did not panic: we noticed the breakage right away, and anyway we were in America! Land of liberty, ever gaining ground in reproductive rights (or so we thought). Plan B had just been approved by the FDA for over the counter sale, so I imagined I could saunter down to the nearest Rite Aid and buy some.
I called first, though. “You’ll need a prescription,” said my friendly neighborhood pharmacist.
“But I thought the FDA had approved over the counter sale!” I exclaimed in dismay.
“Right, they have,” the pharmacist conceded. “But it takes some time for these things to go into effect, so we don’t expect to have Plan B available for sale without prescription until sometime next year.”
Uh-huh.
So I paged my doctor away from whatever it is that he does on weekends–fortunately he is a very understanding man–and for several months I thought malicious thoughts toward the FDA and Rite-Aid (particularly when listening to the Dresden Dolls’ track “Mandy Goes to Med School”).
There is a lesson in all of this. Back in March, Elizabeth Wood of Sex in the Public Square announced Back up Your Birth Control Day, urging readers to take measures to prevent a crisis before it occurs. Plan B should truly be available over the counter at this time; whether or not you anticipate a failure in your primary birth control method (and really, who does?), I beseech you to consider acquiring some form of emergency contraception. You never know when you, your significant other, or your best friend will suddenly be frantic with worry and unable to ensure their bodily safety.
In fact, I challenge you to purchase Plan B or at least attempt to, and report back at this site: Where did you go? How much did it cost? Did you have any trouble? What is your age and sex, and do you think those stats affected your ability to purchase Plan B?
June 2nd, 2007 at 5:29 am
first time posting to this site. i’ll be happy to chat away with folks but prefer to remain anonymous to the readers i don’t know–so if you happen to recognize me don’t say so! i’m a chicken, but i have a lot to say…
so, the terrible terrible morning of Plan B. one morning which involved visiting (and deciding to break up with!) a boyfriend who happened to be in grad school at my former college, which happened to have an excellent clinic, which happened to still have my records and be prompt, non judgemental and friendly in helping me deal with the problem. the boyfriend, discarding for the moment, thankfully, the peter pan issues which caused the break up, was calm and thoughtful.
i assumed it would be my first and only time having an “emergency” as i considered myself to be an extremely careful person.
years later, at the start of a new (and current) relationship, having been off the pill for quite some time while single, there was another condom disaster. this terrible morning involved quite a lot of fear (i really really like him will he deal well with this?) and quite a lot of lying. i was in an office job at the time, and had to invent a disease-like emergency to garner the approved hours away from the office with no notice. of course the break occured in media nocce–with plenty of hours in which to freak out before any health related offices would open. jefferson family medical practices, with whom i have many issues that can be discussed later, performed admirably in my crisis. i was given the first available appointment (turned out to be around 10:00) but was actually seen about an hour later, with many apologies. the doctor starting writing the script the moment i asked for it, pausing only to ask–did i need an hiv test? i politely no-thanked him, saying we’d both already had one (true, and my set-in-stone policy) and walked out of there with my filled prescription by noon. coming back in to the office and feigning my mystery illness while desperately waiting for a chance to report back to the very wonderful man who is still (and i hope always) my partner in crime, life, and sex crises.
so. now that Plan B is supposdedly going to be so available… i hope never to need it again. being currently in the frightening, yet extremely lovely position of having another option–speeding up life a bit and having those desired ‘future’ elements (like a wedding, and babies…) happen when need be. but, if for some reason i did need it, i don’t think i’d have any trouble.
right–so two relatively easy and uncomplicated experiences with Plan B still make for two of the worst nights/mornings of my life. CONDOMS SUCK. failure rate is unacceptable. pills, creams, barriers, whatever. just protect yourselves, please. only be parents when you want it.
June 8th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
So, this is on topic and I figured that people who frequent this community ought to know a few more interesting things about EC…
Some pharmacists have been refusing to dispense the morning after pill for moral reasons/ judgments. I find this sort of thing to be horrendous regardless of the fact that I have never been in a situation that required it. My point would be, such as it is, that this sort of thing is the Last thing that anyone would need at such a stressful moment in their life and the fact that it has occurred enough to warrant an official response deeply troubles me.
Having been thoroughly pessimistic about things, the good news is that action is being taken to prevent this sort of thing from continuing.
This is a link to the blog of a friend of mine who brought it to my attention and a second to the place where he found it.
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=21836352&blogID=273544275&Mytoken=4B643348-371C-4A31-881A5383FE8129C554156432
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/13117/MEDIA/freedom/index.htm
Discuss amongst yeselves…
July 4th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
I had a terrible experience early in my marriage. I stopped taking the pill after about three months. Then we started using condoms, which was ok for many months, until one broke at exactly mid-cycle. I wanted to go get emergency contraception, but my husband has religious objections to it, and he was very loving to me and made me feel that it wouldn’t be so bad if we had a baby. So I didn’t go and get it for about 24 hours.
Then I woke up in the middle of the night and panicked. I still had one month left of the four-month supply of the pill that I’d stopped taking. I remembered someone once telling me that emergency contraception was just a high dose of the pill, so I took a row of the pill (I think I took about 8 pills). I felt pretty sick. Then I looked up on the internet and found a list of different birth control pills and how many you would need to take to be like emergency contraception. I only needed to take 4 of my brand twice, twelve hours apart. So about 12hours later I took another 4. I felt sick, but didn’t vomit, and after nervously waiting for my period a few weeks, it finally came.
I felt guilty and told my husband about what I did (he is very against emergency contraception) and he was very upset. I find it really hard because he thinks its ok for me to be on the pill (which I feel rotten while taking), but that its not ok to use emergency contraception.
We had another condom break several months later, and I didn’t take anything and the stress of thinking I was pregnant delayed my period several months. We had another breakage and that time I took more of the pill without telling him because I couldn’t face the stress of being a mother yet or even just the stress of maybe being a mother. But now I have gone back on the pill because I can’t cope with condoms breaking and the stress of not telling my husband that I plan to use emergency contraception if one does break.
July 7th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Hard, that’s an awful story. I’m very sorry you went through all of that.
I found a couple of sites that you might like to share with your husband. While I think that matters of birth control and pregnancy should be shared decisions for married couples, it sounds like you’re bearing an unjust portion of physical and psychological pain in these instances - perhaps it is worth discussing birth control again and introducing some additional information.
The Food and Drug Admin’s explanation of how Plan B works, which is (as you thought) similar to regular oral contraceptive. The site points out that Plan B has no affect on already fertilized eggs: http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/planB/planBQandA20060824.htm
Also, Princeton University’s Q&A section, which covers a wide range of topics, including whether it is acceptable to substitute multiple birth control pills for emergency contraception (answer: not all types of hormone combinations have been tested for effective pregnancy prevention). The page also includes a more thorough explanation of how the EC works, again making a point that the it only works *before* pregnancy occurs: http://ec.princeton.edu/questions/index.html
Stripes: A very belated reply, but thanks for sharing your experiences - and for pointing out that despite the relative ease with which you obtained EC, you were still frightened, stressed, and overall very upset! The bottom line is that it’s terrible to feel that your body is out of your control, which is why it’s so important that safe and comfortable methods of birth control are available to everyone.
July 9th, 2007 at 2:05 am
Wow, hard, that’s extremely rough. I don’t happen to truck with religion much at all, and certainly not with pro-life arguments short of strangling/leaving the wilderness a birth brought to term, but I wouldn’t be able to disagree with a partner who asserted religious grounds: belief is a big deal, and it’s important enough even for me (lacking it) that I’d rather not step on it.
A point that Peach doesn’t touch on but that may be relevant for you: not all birth control pills will affect you in the same way. If your prior or current prescription makes you ill for some phase of your cycle, makes your immune resistance go poof, makes your face break out, or so forth: talk to your OB/GYN about alternatives. My current SO had bad experiences previously, said so, and has something now that doesn’t (so far as she’s said) cause her trouble.
July 18th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Wow, Hard. I’m so sorry that you have to go through that with your husband! I know that mental anguish from pregnancy scares, but this was either before Plan B was available, or I was just so secluded in the Bible Belt that I didn’t know it existed.
I worry that you have to go behind his back to take care of yourself. I’m sending good thoughts (prayers, if you will) your way, for strength or whatever you need most.
grumpy, I can agree that respecting another’s religious beliefs is good, but in my eyes it’s the woman’s body that has to bear the brunt of what pregnancy imposes on people’s lives, so, while a man (the husband, BF, whatever) gets to express his concerns, he doesn’t get to forbid a woman from using EC because of his personal beliefs.
So I agree with Peach that a discussion of birth control is in order. Perhaps your husband will me more open to EC if he understands that 1) it’s not an abortive and 2) that worry about becoming pregnant before you’re ready is causing you significant stress.