Public Service Announcement for travellers in no plan-B countries, e.g. Philippines
11-26-2017, 05:44 PM
Public Service Announcement
I remember someone in the Philippines thread about the non-availability of Plan B and me recommending him that he could just use regular birth control pills. It probably got lost somewhere in there and I just saw someone else asking exactly the same so I thought it might be useful to share the following information:
Plan-B is 1.5mg (= 1500 micrograms) levonorgestrel delivered in a single dose. That's it. There's nothing else to it. Therefore you can use any regular birth control pill that contains this active ingredient, in the right dosage and the effects should be the same.
For example the following birth control pill is (or was, a year and a half ago) available OTC and it's very affordable at only 64 pesos:
![[Image: 11304145_10153243607040042_95850654_n.jpg]](https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5MNiR_6TG64/VV7MBjojwNI/AAAAAAAAADc/EsG-E7LsM9U/s1600/11304145_10153243607040042_95850654_n.jpg)
Adjusting the dosage this clocks in at 10 pills, so 10 of these can be considered equal to 1 dose of Plan-B. It may sound wacky but keep in mind that this is not broscience and usage of OTC birth control for emergency contraception has been declared safe and effective by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Here's a Princeton University website explaining this exact same concept:
http://ec.princeton.edu/questions/dose.html
Here's another website with more information and dosage guidelines: http://en.hesperian.org/hhg/Where_Women_...y_planning
You can also browse Google for other sources.
If you go to that website and scroll to the bottom you'll find a table with names of common birth control medication and the amounts that need to be taken for them to be effective as emergency contraception. I thought those amounts were a bit over the top. For example, for the first one "Afirmelle" they advise that the user takes 5 pills immediately and 5 more pills 12 hours after, which works out to a whopping 5000 microgram dose of levonorgestrel or more than 3 plan-B doses. So if I were to give someone this "Afirmelle" as emergency contraception I'd just give out 3 pills for the same dosage in Plan-B.
Following considerations shall apply:
Thank you
I remember someone in the Philippines thread about the non-availability of Plan B and me recommending him that he could just use regular birth control pills. It probably got lost somewhere in there and I just saw someone else asking exactly the same so I thought it might be useful to share the following information:
Plan-B is 1.5mg (= 1500 micrograms) levonorgestrel delivered in a single dose. That's it. There's nothing else to it. Therefore you can use any regular birth control pill that contains this active ingredient, in the right dosage and the effects should be the same.
For example the following birth control pill is (or was, a year and a half ago) available OTC and it's very affordable at only 64 pesos:
Adjusting the dosage this clocks in at 10 pills, so 10 of these can be considered equal to 1 dose of Plan-B. It may sound wacky but keep in mind that this is not broscience and usage of OTC birth control for emergency contraception has been declared safe and effective by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Here's a Princeton University website explaining this exact same concept:
http://ec.princeton.edu/questions/dose.html
Here's another website with more information and dosage guidelines: http://en.hesperian.org/hhg/Where_Women_...y_planning
You can also browse Google for other sources.
If you go to that website and scroll to the bottom you'll find a table with names of common birth control medication and the amounts that need to be taken for them to be effective as emergency contraception. I thought those amounts were a bit over the top. For example, for the first one "Afirmelle" they advise that the user takes 5 pills immediately and 5 more pills 12 hours after, which works out to a whopping 5000 microgram dose of levonorgestrel or more than 3 plan-B doses. So if I were to give someone this "Afirmelle" as emergency contraception I'd just give out 3 pills for the same dosage in Plan-B.
Following considerations shall apply:
- I'm not a medical professional and if you proceed with this you do so at your own risk.
- If you find another pill that matches the EE/levo dosages on the website above, feel free to go with the dosages on that website, as those are declared safe by the FDA.
- I did this with 4 girls by measuring for 1.5 mg levonorgestrel (lower dosage than what was recommended on the website above) and none of them got pregnant
- I did accidentally get someone pregnant before, so I'm pretty sure I'm not shooting blanks (so the lower dosage apparently worked fine, but again YMMV)
- You can use any OTC birth control pill as long as it has levonorgestrel (some of them don't)
- Make sure to use the active pills. On a blister pack of 28 pills, 21 will be active and 7 will be bunk (they're only there to help keep the habit of taking a pill a day) They're usually in a different color.
- "Half of the dose immediately and the other half 12 hours later" isn't really necessary, all pills can be taken at once (though it might upset the stomach)
- Plan-B shouldn't be taken if already pregnant!
- Plan-B won't protect either party against STDs (obviously)
- Plan-B is not a replacement for proper birth control. It can cause permanent hormonal changes if taken too often (that's why I chose to go with lower dosages than the FDA recommendation)
- I recommend you throw out the rest after giving this to one girl. The look you get is truly priceless when you pull out a pill blister with 10 pills already taken out lol
- Again, I'm not a medical professional and you proceed at your own risk!
Thank you
“Our great danger is not that we aim too high and fail, but that we aim too low and succeed.” ― Rollo Tomassi
![[Image: banana.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/new/banana.gif)
