The use of emergency oral contraceptive pills to prevent unwanted pregnancy is fast catching up with the youth.
The current frequent advertisement of the products in the electronic media and on giant bill boards along busy streets may be a major contributory factor to this.
For most patrons of the product, usually women, this may be a convenient means to deal with unwanted pregnancy and enjoy sex because they have the opportunity to have what is currently being known as “skin to skin” – that is raw sex without condoms.
According to some females, mostly young girls interviewed by the Times, condoms served as “barriers” to direct contract.
Aside from the fact that the use of emergency contraceptive pills, also known as “the morning-after pills” does not prevent sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) or infections, there is also a major risk which is hardly talked about.
A consultant gynecologist and obstetrician at the Nyaho Medical Centre, Dr. Jonathan Churchill Myers-Lamptey, is worried that when some women take the pills, they do not undergo an ultrasound scans to confirm if all the “conceptus” sperm and egg in the womb have come out.
An ultra-sound scan is a medical test that uses high-frequency sound waves to capture live images from the inside of your body.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghanaian Times, he disclosed that “taking the pill and hoping that you will not become pregnant is not the end of matter”, adding that pregnancy was not the worse thing that could happen to a sexually active woman as people had been made to believe.
“It is important that when women take emergency contraceptive pills, they take a scan to ensure that all the sperm and the egg came out.” According to him, there was the possibility that some pieces might be left in there which could cause infection, as well as block the fallopian tubes and in future cause infertility.
Dr. Myers-Lamptey said “when a scan is not taken to confirm that all the pieces are out, it could also cause prolonged bleeding.”
He said as the name suggest emergency contraceptives pills should not be used often, though he did not say specifically the number of times a person should take them within a period.
He cautioned, “When a women takes the morning after pill, the person bleeds and gradually, this may endanger the lining of the womb since the pill is supposed to force the sperm and egg, which may have formed a pregnancy, to come out.”
The consultant gynecologist and Obstetrician also advised against people taking the pills several days or weeks after sex.
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