High-hormone pills ok but low-hormone pills are not?

It concerns me that the "morning-after" pill is available over the counter but standard oral birth control is not. There are some valid reasons to require access to a doctor prior to dispensing oral birth control but the hassle of those visits may result in women using the Plan B pill as a primary form of birth control, with potentially dangerous results. If this is used in a long-term, regular fashion then the level of hormones being delivered will be much higher than when using standard, oral birth control and there are definite potential harms.

If oral birth control hormones are available, they should definitely include the standard, traditional pills which have a lower hormonal level. Lacking those will inevitably result in some women using the higher-dosage "morning-after" pill as a primary form of birth control with an up-tick in side-effects that could be avoidable.

Morning-after pill sales jump as access eases
CNN

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of the Plan B "morning-after pill" nearly doubled in the past year, exceeding expectations after the U.S. government allowed adults to buy the emergency contraceptive without a prescription.

A three-year battle ended last August when the Food and drug Administration decided that women and men 18 and older could buy the Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. product without a doctor's order if they showed proof of age at a pharmacy.

"More women know about it, and it's just becoming much more part of their mainstream reproductive health care," Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said.

Plan B pills contain higher dosages of progestin, a hormone used in prescription birth-control pills for 35 years. Two Plan B pills reduce odds of pregnancy by 89 percent if taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse, studies show.

Plan B sales hit about $40 million a year when the product required a prescription for all women. Industry analysts and Barr projected nonprescription access for adults, approved in August 2006, could boost sales to about $60 million in 2007.

The popularity of Plan B has exceeded those estimates.

Barr launched the nonprescription version last November, and the company predicts 2007 sales will reach about $80 million.

"We believe (sales) will continue to grow," Barr spokeswoman Carol Cox said.