Dispelling morning after pill myths

After an accident with a condom (twice in one cycle), I turned to emergency contraception to stop any chance of pregnancy. After telling my friends that I had to take the morning-after pill, I was bombarded with horror stories, claims of failure and disapproving glares. In a fit of worry and guilt, I researched all these statements and found that at least 90% of them were myths. Emergency contraception is surrounded by an unnecessary taboo that I will aim to debunk in this blog post.

Myth number 1: the morning-after pill is the same as an abortion

This first one came from my friends telling me I was getting an abortion. They aimed to make me feel guilty but, a quick web search told me exactly what I needed to know. Emergency Contraception does not cause an abortion because the goal is different. While an abortion terminates an unwanted pregnancy, emergency contraception stops an unwanted pregnancy. With emergency contraception, the sperm has not met an egg, so the goal is to stop that happening. Abortion happens when a fetus has already formed. The two things are completely different, so if you are against abortion, don’t worry, the morning after pill is not the same thing.

Myth number 2: you can’t take the morning after pill more than once

As quite an anxious person, just the idea of being pregnant sent me into a ferocious panic. To then be told by my friends that taking the pill more than three times a year could have serious repercussions on my fertility, you can imagine how stressed I became. There are no legitimate studies to show that emergency contraception harms fertility in future life. Health services tend to warn against using the morning after pill as the sole form of contraception simply because the effectiveness rate isn’t as high and the cost is significantly more.

I hope my blog post has dismissed some of the myths surrounding emergency contraception. The morning after pill was the best thing for me, all I needed was the reassurance that it was safe to use.