9 myths about the morning-after pill debunked

The morning-after pill causes an abortion

MYTH

A lot of people think that the morning-after pill causes an abortion. This is just a myth. The morning-after pill only prevents a pregnancy by delaying the ovulation. If you are late in taking it, i.e., have already ovulated and your egg is fertilized, the pill doesn’t do anything and you remain pregnant. The pill does not damage the embryo in that case either.

You can take the morning-after pill as contraception

MYTH

The morning-after pill is not reliable enough to do so. About 1 to 2 percent of women still get pregnant after taking the morning-after pill. In fact, with unprotected sex during or just after your ovulation, you run the risk of being fertilized before you take it. In addition, the pill can cause unpleasant side effects such as headaches and sensitive breasts. You probably don’t want these! Only use the morning-after pill as an occasional contraception method that should not replace your regular form of birth control.

Take the morning-after pill as soon as possible after having unprotected sex

FACT

The emergency pill works best if you take it within 12 hours after having unprotected sex. At least take it within 3 to 5 days after, depending on the type of pill you are taking. A morning-after pill containing the substance ulipristal acetate works longer (take within 5 days) than a morning-after pill containing levonorgestrel (take within 72 hours), because ulipristal acetate also works just before the ovulation whilst levonorgestrel doesn’t. But one thing is for sure: the sooner you take the pill, the better. The bigger your chances are of delaying your ovulation. And thus the smaller the chances of pregnancy.

Do you want to know more about the different kinds of morning-after pills you can get?

The morning-after pill is bad for your health

MYTH

Blood clots, cancer, heart disease… These are all ailments linked to the usage of the morning-after pill. Research shows time and time again that from a medical point of view it’s okay to take the pill occasionally. However, that doesn’t mean you should just take it every month, because it can have some really nasty side effects that won’t make you feel any better. Unless you enjoy getting headaches, getting your period earlier or much later, nausea, stomach aches, back pain, sensitive breasts and exhaustion of course. These symptoms should be gone after a couple of days after taking the pill, so there is no long term effect on your health. 

The hormones in the morning-after pill increase the risk of disease

MYTH

Back in the day this used to be true. There used to be a large dose of estrogen in the morning-after pill and this can cause blood clots and heart disease. But these pills are no longer sold in Europe, it’s no longer allowed. The modern day morning-after pill only contains levonorgestrel or ulipristal acetate and they don’t cause thrombosis or heart diseases.

You can also just take 8 to 10 regular birth control pills

MYTH

There are people who experiment by taking eight to ten regular birth control pills ‘the morning after’ or by taking three birth control pills a day for three days straight. Apparently, this seems to be effective against pregnancy, but the effect has never been studied. Besides that, you will be ingesting a very large dose of estrogen, which is not healthy at all. So as far as we are concerned, not recommended.

Getting pregnant is more difficult after using the morning-after pill

MYTH

You can find a lot of stories online that getting pregnant is more difficult after taking the morning-after pill. That is absolute nonsense. The morning-after pill only delays your ovulation once for a couple of days. After that, your normal menstrual cycle continues as usual. So, beware if you start taking the regular pill after the morning-after pill, you should always take extra protection measures for the first week, such as using condoms.

The morning-after pill protects you against pregnancy for the remainder of your cycle

MYTH

A morning-after pill only delays the ovulation once. This means that it doesn’t protect you for the remainder of your cycle. In other words: there is the chance that you could get pregnant if you do the horizontal tango without protection again in the same cycle. Please note that after starting to take the birth control pill, it is only reliable after seven days.

You can combine the morning-after pill with other medications

MYTH

A couple of drug substances, the so-called CYP3A4 inducers (such as bosentan, carbamazepine, efavirenz, etravirine, phenobarbital, phenytoin, griseofulvin, nevirapine, oxcarbazepine, primidone, rifabutin, rifampicin, ritonavir (long-term use) and St. John's wort) can reduce the effect of the morning-after pill. If you’ve used any of the above drugs in the past 4 weeks, the morning-after pill is not recommended; consider non-hormonal emergency contraception such as a copper IUD (which you do need to have inserted within five days).

In short: the morning-after pill doesn’t cause any health problems, but the short term side effects are incredibly unpleasant and can make you feel ill for a couple of days after taking it.

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