MORNING-AFTER PILL

A Man’s Goodbye ‘Gift’?

‘In a world of complexities and inflation, one needs to either dress up or have a MAP.’ These were words I overheard in a conversation between two young gentlemen as we travelled in a lift. I was heading to our offices on the second floor and alighted before I could get the full context of their conversation. For several weeks this conversation came to my mind and I would try to decode it. Why would someone need to be ‘dressed up’ to beat inflation? And what does this have to do with a MAP?

Then recently I heard the word MAP come out of the lips of a lady. I was having lunch and two ladies sharing the table with me got busy discussing their love lives. One said to her colleague, ‘He refused to dress up. My plan B was a MAP, but it failed …’

If like me you are good in geography and thinking of an atlas, let me bring you up to speed. A MAP simply means ‘morning-after pill’ and to be dressed up is to wear a condom.

Increasingly, I hear, women are using MAPs-especially teenagers and adolescents. The concern goes beyond access to the pills; some young girls are using MAPs routinely, as though they are a regular contraceptive pill.

Depending on how appropriately they are used and when, MAPs mayor may not always work. Sandra Mulluka consulted some women on the matter. Below are some of the experiences they narrated.

Case 1: It was my first time to use a morning-after pill and that was the very day I got pregnant. I followed the instructions very well: ‘take one pill immediately after sexual contact, then take the second one 12 hours after the first one.’ I did exactly that. When my menses delayed that month I thought it was normal because I had also read on the pill’s literature that they can cause a delay of menses. I had also been told the same thing by a friend who used to take them and had experienced delayed menses. I waited for a month and come the second month I was still waiting.

I think I was naive, so come the third month and I still thought my menses were on the way. I started feeling funny in my tummy, but thought it may be other side effects of the pill, only to reach the fourth month and realise that my tummy was growing, bigger. I did not go for a pregnancy test for fear of the worst! Finally I found that the pills had backfired and I was pregnant! It was even difficult to explain the whole scenario to my boyfriend because I was with him when I bought the drug; and he could not understand how the pills could have failed yet he saw me taking them.

Case 2: I had been on contraceptive pills for almost five years, since I was sexually active with my boyfriend. However, I had noticed that the pills were having a negative effect on me and therefore decided to stop taking them. I had gained considerable weight and when my periods were about, I became very irritable and moody. When I talked to my gynaecologist she explained to me that it was all hormonal and advised that I take a break to allow time to switch to another type of contraceptive.

At that time, my boyfriend and I had quarreled and we were not seeing each other. During a make-up visit I got vulnerable and we made love. I was cautious and told him that I was no longer on the pill. He brushed it off and told me to buy the morning-after pill, which I did. I took them as prescribed.

You can’t imagine my shock when two months later I discovered that I was pregnant! I still don’t understand how that could have happened. This has caused some strain in my relationship with my boyfriend who thinks I got pregnant deliberately!

Case 3: After getting my first baby, I was on the ‘breastfeeding pill’ for eight months before switching to the normal pill. Unfortunately I developed adverse reactions to the pill which the doctor told me were hormonal reactions. Since he was not sure which hormone was causing the reactions, he decided to do some tests. In the meantime, I was to take caution not to get pregnant again.

My husband is not one to use condoms so that kind of precaution was out of the question. I had to devise my own ingenious ways, including taking the morning-after pill whenever I was not on safe days. As I had used MAPs before my first baby, I knew they do disrupt the menstrual cycle. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when my menses came right on schedule, though they lasted longer. In the following month, I noticed that my periods were much lighter and went on for almost two weeks. This is what prompted me to go to hospital, only for the doctor to ‘congratulate’ me on my pregnancy! To date I have not understood where I went wrong, or whether it was the drug that let me down!

As I have come to learn from men, their attitude towards MAPs is very different from that of women. Some of the men do not even believe a MAP can fail, while others state that a man should have at least two such pills in his wallet. One man stated that a MAP is the best goodbye ‘gift’ a man who wants no commitments can give a woman upon waking up the morning after!

Read ‘What Men Think About The Morning After Pill’ in the June issue of Pregnant. Dr. David Kiragu will also explain the risks and rewards of using MAPs.

PG MAY 07/32