To think women should be told this about the morning after pill?

[christmaselfie1]

The morning after pill is directly linked to ovulation, and if you have already ovulated then it is pretty much pointless!

I had sex where the condom split on Monday last week, but due to covid restrictions and living rurally I was not able to get the morning after pill until Friday (4 days after sex). I have taken Ellaone before, the brand that you can take up to 5 days after, so assumed that all would be okay. I am also tracking my cycles on the instruction of my gynaecologist because I suffer with ovarian cysts.

I got my LH surge and a positive ovulation test on Wednesday morning, which means ovulation would have occurred imminently, most likely well before I took the morning after pill on Friday evening!

Since researching, I have discovered that the morning after pill works by delaying or preventing ovulation. Therefore, if you have already ovulated, and the sperm happened to meet the egg in that time, the morning after pill has pretty much zero effect! You can read it yourself on the manufacturers website...

www.ellaone.co.uk/faqs/does-ellaone-work-if-youve-already-ovulated

I have taken the morning after pill three times and I have never been told this by any pharmacist. I have never been informed on how it works, just that is it effective up to 5 days after unprotected sex. The only emergency contraception that works in these circumstances is the IUD. I have now got the worry for the next week that I might be pregnant.

Am I the only person that had no idea how the morning after pill works?!

I don't understand why anyone is saying YABU!

@InkieNecro

It was levonelle, not EllaOne. It also cost me £20, it has never been free from pharmacies as far as my experience goes, only from the FPC.

Also some pharmacists clearly do tell people how it works, mine didn't. He asked when I had sex and confirmed I could take it while breastfeeding and that was it.

That's weird as I went to my local Lloyd's Pharmacy the first time, and the pharmacy at my local walk-in centre the second time (not sure what company runs that one) and I didn't pay either time.

I have never been told this! Taken the morning after pill once 10 years ago, and again 5 years later. This is not made clear at all. I assumed it gave a kind surge of hormone effect that caused a period to come on - therefore preventing implantation. Both times it seemed to make my period come earlier. But I have no idea where this idea came from, or if it even makes sense now I think about it.

I’ve taken it 3 times in my life and this was never explained. Typically people don’t often read the small print, and maybe especially so if you’re stressed and panicking.

I’d definitely picked up the idea it prevents implantation, if this is a myth then women need telling. I wonder if it’s mentioned at school in SRE

This is how I ended up with a termination. I, perhaps naively, thought that is stopped implantation. So YANBU OP. I hope for the best for you.

I certainly did not know nor was told any of this. Granted, it was 20 years ago but my MAP did not work!!

Gosh I did not know this at all. I have taken Ellaone on 3 different occasions and I have never been asked more than when was my last period (wasn’t explained to me why they needed this information).. I have had to pay each time, twice from the pharmacy and once from a boots store. None of these times was I taken into a side room, simply told the price and checked period dates and pay.

It seems I have been very lucky in the past.. all three of them occasions has I know I would have had a IUD fitted as it was very important to me that I did not get pregnant. Hence taking the MAP!

I didn't know this

@MooseyGoose90 I too would have had the IUD fitted. Had I been informed of this on Friday, I could've stood a chance of getting one. I am now much too late as it's been a week since the sex occurred - and I suspect I ovulated on Wednesday evening or sometime on Thursday - based on my ovulation positive test and the ovulation cramps I get every month. So taking Ellaone on Friday evening will have done nothing to prevent a pregnancy.

I will be updating this thread whatever the outcome in a week or so time.

It would take 30 seconds to add this to an appropriate lesson at school. It’s the sort of thing girls would remember.

Presumably the iud would still work after ovulation

So op is unreasonable because "most women know". I didn't & I'm 40 and highly educated and everything. Any other good reasons been given? Or are there just lurkers hitting the yabu button because we should all shut up, put out & accept our baby making fate? Cos I just timed myself saying "are you aware this pill is less effective after ovulation" and it took me 4 seconds. I don't think that's an unreasonable ask.

I only knew after paying 40quid for emergency delivery and realised I had ovulate anyway so pointless

Maybe the preventing implantation myth is so widespread that some health care staff believe it too

I had no idea. I have used it twice- when I was much younger- and at that time was under the impression that it would prevent an already-fertilised egg from implanting. I distinctly remember considering whether or not to take it because I didn’t know how I felt about that mechanism.

I knew it wasn't 100% effective but didn't know the reason why.

Maybe the preventing implantation myth is so widespread that some health care staff believe it too. I wonder about this too.

I didnt know that, explains dc1. Thanks.

I took one last week (not Ella one) and it said on the packet that it worked both by either preventing ovulation, or preventing implantation, but was most effective if used before ovulation. So maybe its different for different types?

Ella mainly works by stopping ovulation but may prevent implantation (just googled)

Most of the only work by stopping implantation

Sorry misread! I’d googled Ella

@ByGrabtharsHammerWhatASavings From my understanding, the two emergency contraceptive pills (Ellaone and Levonelle) both work by preventing or delaying ovulation. There is no evidence that either prevent or stop implantation. On Ellaone's website it states:

'ellaOne® works by delaying ovulation. It cannot stop implantation, or have any effect if you have already ovulated.'

It seems this myth is very well perpetuated, as I was also under the impression that it had some other effects other than just delaying ovulation...

It wasn’t explained to me and I told the pharmacist I was bang in the middle of my cycle. Although she said they couldn’t guarantee it would work she did explicitly say it was a 3-pronged approach:

1. stop ovulation
2. if ovulation had already occurred it would stop sperm meeting egg
3. if sperm had already met egg it would stop implantation.

This was all absolutely inaccurate and it did bugger all.

So I don’t blame you for not knowing OP. I didn’t either and clearly neither did the pharmacist although this was about 7 years ago so hopefully more is known about it now.

@onlythepianoplayer

You expect the pharmacist to explain to you in detail how it works....rather than just reading the bloody leaflet it comes with? FFS.

Isn’t OP’s point that if you have the bloody leaflet then they have already sold it to you. If they explain it before and find out it wouldn’t work on you then they wouldn’t need to sell it to you.

@ImEatingVeryHealthilyOhYes are you able to send me a link? As on Ellaone's website it states that it does not have any effect if ovulation has already occurred.

@MiddleClassProblem Exactly this! What's the point in buying something that categorically won't work!