Contraceptive, morning after

Post-coital contraception ( morning after pilT)... 

The postcoital (morning after) contraception is recommended within 48 hours after an unprotected intercourse, rape or contraceptive failure. 

Pregnancy can be prevented following coitus by the administration of estrogens alone, progestin alone, or in combination ("morning after contraception). When treatment is begun within 72 hours, it is effective 99% of the time. Some effective schedules are shown in Table 40-4. The hormones are often administered with antiemetics, since 40% of the patients have nausea or vomiting. Other adverse effects include headache, dizziness, breast tenderness, and abdominal and leg cramps. 

The morning after method of suppressing pregnancy is usually less well tolerated than normal hormonal contraception, and variants on the dosage schedule continue to be studied in an attempt to improve tolerability without undermining the reliability of the method. 

POSTCOITAL ( morning after pill ) AND EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION... 

Mifepristone (often called RU-486) is a controversial morning after contraceptive pill. Identify all of the organic functional groups that it contains. 

Doctors sometimes prescribe higher doses of combined oral contraceptives for use as morning after" pills, which are taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse to prevent any possibly fertilized egg from reaching the uterus. The FDA s... 

So-called morning-after pills or emergency contraceptive pUls actually consist of large doses of ordinary oral contraceptives to be taken shortly after sexual intercourse. These were initially used for rape victims but are now approved for emergency contraception when taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse. A physician s prescription is required for these drugs. 

Levonorgestrel is the active ingredient in the "morning after pill," an oral contraceptive that has been approved by the FDA. Discuss the following questions about levonorgestrel with your study group ... 

Aetivated ehareoal 5 g four times daily was taken for 3 days, mid-cyele, with the first daily dose taken 3 hours after the morning dose of a combined oral contraceptive (ethinylestradiol/norethisterone or ethinylestra-diol/gestodene), had no effect on the pharmaeokinetics of the contraeeptive steroids in 9 healthy subjeets, and ovulation (assessed by hormone measurements and ultrasonography) did not oeeur. The authors concluded that repeated charcoal treatment, given 3 hours after and at least 12 hours before a combined oral contraceptive, can be used to treat diarrhoea in women taking combined oral contraceptives. ... 

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