A major drug company earlier this week substantiated the greatest fear of every woman who has ever relied on “the pill” to prevent pregnancy – some of their packets of the “Lo/Ovral-28” drug and its generics versions may have been produced incorrectly and may not block pregnancy after all.
Join me in my horror, will you, as I glance down at my 8-month-pregnant-self and say “nooooo” with all the disbelief and shock of someone who realized she was pregnant after more than a month of taking a similar pill.
And what of all those preggos (like myself) at your duty station? How many of them swear (again, just like me) that they were on some kind of birth control pill when they conceived?
Mmmhmm. That’s exactly what I thought.
Now, before I induce mass panic, let’s establish some facts about this particular recall. Seventy-five million packets of birth control are prescribed in the US every year and only one million of those are being recalled. Since Lo-Ovral is not even one of the top-five prescribed kinds on the market, you probably aren’t taking it, and you probably don’t know anyone who is or who has gotten pregnant while using it. The message from experts commenting on the subject is, still, “trust the pill.”
As it turns out, I cannot blame my soon-to-born baby on Pfizer and their bad pills. And for the record, I in no way am sad that we will soon be welcoming son number two into the world.
But with the return of so many servicemembers from Iraq and the constant coming and goings on bases worldwide, I still wonder how many spouses will not get the memo and suddenly find themselves surprised at the need to up the number of dependents on next year’s tax return? Will the first name “Pfizer” suddenly become popular on bases everywhere?
