Morning After Pill
Emergency Contraceptive Pills (ECP)
Commonly known as the morning-after pill, ECPs are birth control
pills containing the hormone estrogen and progestin. The current
treatment schedule is one dose within 72 hours after unprotected
intercourse and a second dose 12 hours after the first.
Emergency contraception is a way of blocking the
meeting between a woman's egg and a man's sperm or if such a meeting
has already occur, of preventing a fertilized egg from attaching
itself to the womb.
Emergency contraception is not an abortion; it
will not disrupt an already established pregnancy, nor does it harm
a fetus if used by mistake early in an established pregnancy.
The use of birth control pills for emergency contraception
was introduced by Dr. Albert Yuzpe, a Canadian Obstetrician and
Gynecologist in 1974. Emergency contraception pills have been available
in Europe and other countries, where they are packaged for just
that purpose.
Emergency contraception is just that- contraception
to be used in an emergency, and should not be substituted for ongoing
contraception.
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