"In a major blow to birth control proponents, the European equivalent of
Plan B - known as the 'morning after pill' - now includes a warning that
the contraceptive is not effective for women over 165 pounds and does
not work at all for women over 176 pounds,"
writes Nicole Bailey. "The implications are
staggering: according to the Centers for Disease Control, the average
weight of an American woman over 20 is 166.2 pounds."
Feminist outlet Jezebel pointed out that the saga began with a 2011 study:
...a 2011 study out of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland
that found that "the risk of pregnancy was more than threefold greater
for obese women compared with women with normal body mass index,
whichever EC [Emergency Contraception] was taken." They also found that
the risk of pregnancy was particularly high if that emergency
contraception was made of levonorgestrel, the hormone found in many of
the major over-the-counter morning after pills sold in the United
States, like Plan B One-Step. The study recommended that overweight
women use IUDs.
HRA Pharma, the European manufacturer of a drug essentially identical to
America's Plan B, has followed up on the findings of that study and
concluded that it is time to warn women
that "the drug is completely ineffective for women who weigh more than
176 pounds and begins to lose effectiveness in women who weigh more than
165 pounds," reports Mother Jones.
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