Prescribing emergency hormonal contraception in advance advocated by sexual health charity
Provision of emergency hormonal contraception in advance of it being needed would widen access to EHC and deliver public health benefits, according to the fpa. Furthermore, such a service should be available from pharmacies.
The sexual health charity, formally known as the Family Planning Association,
says that women are more likely to use EHC after unprotected sex if they
have already been provided with it. In research involving 100 women and
100 family planning clinics, the fpa found that, of the women questioned,
75 per cent would like to have EHC in advance of need. The fpa says that
over 40 per cent of family planning clinics would provide EHC in advance
if specifically requested and that 14 per cent already offer EHC in this
way.
“This access through the bathroom cabinet is ideal for women whose
[contraception] method could fail or who can’t get to a health
professional easily,” said
fpa chief executive Anne Weyman.
The fpa wants primary care trusts to ensure that mechanisms are in place
to provide EHC in advance. However, a spokeswoman for the Department
of Health said that
routine advance prescribing of emergency contraception was not recommended. “Emergency
contraception is already widely available from pharmacies, contraceptive
services, walk-in centres and GPs, and women should therefore be easily
able to access this product should they need to.” She added that
advanced prescribing of emergency contraception may be appropriate in
some individual cases. “But this is a matter for individual doctors’ discretion.”
Melissa Dear, a spokeswoman for the fpa, said the charity had full confidence
in pharmacy supply of EHC. However, she added that advanced provision
through a variety of outlets — family planning clinics, GPs and
pharmacies — was desirable. “It is important that if a woman
is acting responsibly towards her sexual health that she doesn’t
come up against barriers,” she said.
Sue Kilby, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s head of practice,
said: “Our practice guidance does not include provision of EHC
in advance. When the guidance was drawn up in 2000 it was acknowledged
that this was one of the points that should be revisited in due course.
Now the Society is reviewing its practice guidance as a result of there
being a variation in the dosage. Alongside that we are looking at whether
there is a case for advance supply of EHC in certain circumstances.” |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal