The first over the counter birth control pill is coming to stores near you

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/04/1235404522/opill-over-counter-birth-control-pill-contraceptive-shop

This is interesting for a few reasons. First, there are a multitude of birth control options available and the right option is a decision you should discuss with your healthcare provider. After the “arm dart” was released, any female patient with a blood clot has been told it was “because of their birth control pills”. Now, those have estrogen in them which does carry a clot risk, but in the last 40 years do you know of a person who developed blood clots due to their estrogen birth control pills? I personally do not. Until the last 2 years. When any clot that has developed in a woman taking estrogen pills has been blamed on their birth control. It definitely isn’t their covid vaccine. Look here not there. Keep your head in the sand OBGYN.

What is concerning about this pill being over the counter is there is no estrogen (so I guess the pesky blood clot problem isn’t there), but that means it is progesterone only. They are not nearly as good at preventing pregnancy. You MUST take these every single day at the same time, or else your risk of pregnancy goes way up. As does break thru bleeding. You don’t take a week off of these, you take them every single day ad infinitum. If you miss a week, you are definitely high risk for getting pregnant. There is zero education about these pills. They aren’t the greatest at pregnancy prevention. We are looking at a whole new demographic buying these over the counter, not realizing that they have a strict time dosing guideline, and we are going to end up with possibly more unplanned pregnancies than we already have.