Should I be scared of taking the morning after pill?

[idontbelieveanymore]

My husband and I had an er...misshap in the early hours of this morning. I have just got back from a late pharmacy and swallowed the morning after pill as I am right in the fertile part of my cycle.

Armed with some concerning advice from the lovely pharmacist and £23 lighter in the purse department I am a little apprehensive. He told me that I was likely to feel very sick but must try not to be sick for three hours until pill absorbed or need to have another pill.

He said tummy etc to be expected. I am now very nervous AIBU??

There's no reason you couldn't take the pill then go to a family planning clinic to see about a coil, is there? The MAP is pretty reliable by itself, especially if you get it soon- you should be about 24 hours ish by now- but you could talk to a specialist about a belt and braces approach. And yes nausea is a possibility, but that's all. I had MAP two years ago and felt slight twinges of it. It was very manageable. And also many people feel sick because of nerves at the time when they take it, as this thread shows. So it's hard to say how much of it is down to the pill itself.

I took it once an was not sick at all

In fact as soon as I swallowed it I felt 1000% better as I think it had a psychological placebo effect and my stomach had been tense for 2 days

Try not to get too worried OP (as easy as that is to say). The pill can fail, yes, but there are times when this is more likely to happen - if you have a bowel issue that interferes with absorption, took it more than 72 hours after sex, were already pregnant, had an ectopic pregnany (ie will not stop ectopic preg) or if you have sex after taking the MAP. Some people are sensitive to levonorgestrel and this can cause issues too.

Because it works in 3 ways - prevents ovulation, prevents sperm from fertilising an egg that has already been released and prevents implantation. It works in 84% of cases and is much more effective the sooner you take it - which you did it looks like? It works best within the first 12hours.

So you already know all that and are still seemingly pretty anxious. That is a horrible feeling, I'm sorry. But now that you are done bricking up your fanjo and melting a load of condoms together to make the world's safest sex suit take a deep breath and just hold on a sec!
PPs have already suggested lots of things and that's cool. If you do speak to family planning they may well make you wait for a certain period to see if the MAP has done it's job. So you will probably end up waiting either way.
Just keep thinking about your stats 15-20% chance of pregnancy, 84% success rate of the MAP. Also it sounds like your pharmacist may not have communicated with you in a suitable way either.
Take a little while to just get rid of the panic and worry then come back to it with less adrenaline and feeling sick and all of that.
Maybe have a bit if a kip if you've...been busy. Don't torture yourself and prolong this horrible sicky feeling. You will feel better, honest, and then can decide what you want to do after phoning a clinic or GP, the coil hormonal/copper has some flaws when used like this after some time delay (ie depending when you get in) so they may advise to wait. If you aren't happy with that you can always get a second opinion.

NicNocJnr - thank you for that post. It had the right effect. I am feeling a bit more positive now - I appreciate all the responses - even the ones that say they still got pregnant (dear god you poor people...)

I took the will 17hours after incident...This may work. I will use the wait and see approach and not panic. I am going to continue as normal for the next two weeks and then do a test. Then post on here to inform you of the outcome of my very unplanned and personal scientific experiment on the effectiveness of MAP.

Thanks again everyone for coming to help me
Lovely people

The fact you did take it so soon, will go in your favour. I couldn't get it till 30 odd hours after, and they do say the longer you leave it, the less affective it is.

I wouldn't worry. The chances of you still ending up pregnant are rather small. I wouldn't take a bleed as fact that you aren't though as I made that mistake and only found out I was actually pregnant still later on when i collapsed and was rushed to hospital. So still definitely take a test to be on the safe side.

Fingers crossed for you.

Thank you Buckingfiatch. Sounds like you had a terrible time

Glad you're feeling better now anyway!
17 hours gives you loads of time spare.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you too.
You can also look at things like raspberry leaf tea and similar herbal teas or extracts - have a little look around at them. How you use them differs for each person obviously but I have found it is actually very effective for helping a period along and can also be used alongside other things to help too.

I hope your DH gets a dose of these feelings you've had to deal with!
Good luck!

I'm sure you will be fine! (you could probably take the bricks out now)

Thanks NicNoc - My husband is just 'chillaxed' personified. Bugger.

I think I will tell him that a spider has laid its eggs in his bowel. Give him a tablet to take and tell him that it 'may' work and it 'may not' work and watch to see how calm he is. That'll learn him.....

It didn't work for me either :(

Oh mapontipine - what happened? How stressful life can be for us ladies.

Hi, we're going to move this to Antenatal tests/choices. Thanks.

Oh really? I wonder how chilled he'll be after a good while of being celibate or insist that the bricks stay in until he trots off and gets the male pill and unless he takes a bit of responsibility it isn't going to be coming up roses for him for a bit. Or I suppose you could just get a really focussed look on at his bollocks whenever you start chopping anything, just to un-nerve him enough to reach into the little box reliably!

I can understand AIBU not being the best place but not sure this is the best place for this thread, surrounded by women desperate to have a baby and I am on here moaning about MAP...

Think I will leave this thread now just because I do not want to upset anyone. Thanks NicNoc

Moving this to antenatal choices is the most perverse decision I've seen since Tesco sent me Brussels sprouts instead of Brussels pate!
I have reported Kat's post (very odd sensation). The OP is trying to avoid a pregnancy not make a choice about one!

I concur! Let us know how you get on op.

Yeah, possibly not the most sensitive choice there MN.

Hello
Sorry about that OP and indeed to anyone else who was annoyed by this.
We've moved it to a much more apt Family Planning topic
Many apologies
MNHQ

Oh thank goodness!

Thanks Olivia and Northernlurker (for reporting), Flangelina, Pickled and MooBaa - I can update on this thread now when I have more news.

Thanks for all the support

I really hope it works for you