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A majority 69.2 per cent of women do not suffer from any side-effects after partaking emergency contraceptive pills, but a small percentage might have complaints of headaches, nausea and abdominal pain, a government study says.

The Indian Council of Medical Research initiated a pilot study on emergency contraception through eight human reproduction research centres of ICMR in medical colleges and hospitals across the country.

Majority (69.2 per cent) of the pill users did not have any complaints after using the pills. Of the remaining women who had complaints, the reasons were nausea, dizziness, abdominal pain, headache in 10 per cent to 14 per cent, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

Explaining further, he said EC pill I-pill containing the hormone Levonorgestrel prevents possible pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sexual act.

It usually acts by inhibition or delay of ovulation and may also inhibit implantation. FDA approved the emergency contraceptive ulipristal acetate for preventing pregnancy for up to five days after sex, the New York Times reports. The agency approved the pill, which will be sold under the brand name ella, for prescription-only use. Ella is manufactured by the French-based HRA Pharma and will be distributed in the U.S. by Watson Pharmaceuticals, which said it will introduce it by the end of 2010 (Harris, New York Times, 8/13). Watson has not announced a price for ella (Reuters/Los Angeles Times, 8/14).
Studies have shown that ella is more effective for a longer period of time than Teva Pharmaceuticals’ Plan B, an EC pill that is available without prescription to women ages 17 and older. Plan B can be taken up to three days after sex but gradually loses its effectiveness, unlike ella, which maintains its efficacy for up to five days. Regulators say that women who have unprotected sex have a one in 20 chance of becoming pregnant. Women who take Plan B within three days reduce that risk to about one in 40, and women who take ella within five days would reduce that risk to about one in 50 (New York Times, 8/13). According to Watson, the overall pregnancy rate for women who took ella within three days of sex was 1.9%, and the pregnancy rate was 2.2% for women who took the drug within five days (Reuters/Los Angeles Times, 8/14).

The decision to approve ella comes less than two months after an FDA advisory committee determined that it is safe and effective and unanimously recommended its approval. According to the Times, chemicals in ella block the effects of progesterone, a hormone that spurs ovulation. There is also “some evidence” that the pill can reduce the lining of the uterus, which makes it difficult for a fertilized egg to further develop, the Times reports.

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This post was submitted by rishi maurya.

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