8 Things You Should Know About The Morning After Pill

The Morning After Pill has caused lots of controversy, and many women are confused about how it actually works and what it is meant to do. When can you take the morning after pill? Is the morning after pill the same as an abortion pill? Who can take the morning after pill? How and where can you buy it?

Simply put, the morning after pill is a way of taking advantage of nature’s timeline. Since in most cases, conception only occurs several days after sex, by taking the morning after pill during that window of time between sex and conception, you can hopefully prevent an unwanted pregnancy from ever taking place. This is different from what has become known as the “abortion pill” which actually terminates an already established pregnancy.

Here’s what you need to know about the morning after pill:

1. Morning after pills are generally considered safe.

2. The morning after pill is meant to be taken as a form of emergency birth control after a women has had unprotected sex. It is NOT an abortion pill; rather it works to prevent pregnancy.

3. The morning after pill is basically just a high dosage of regular birth control pills. Just like different birth control pills have different hormones in them, so do the different morning after pills.

4. The morning after pill should be taken within 72 hours of having unprotected sex. Some morning after pills include a second dose 12 hours after the first dose.

5. As with any medication, the morning after pill can cause some side effects including nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fatigue, dizziness, menstrual changes and headache.

6. The morning after pill claims to be more then 80 percent effective in preventing pregnancy after unprotected sex.

7. The morning after pill is available at most pharmacies, or you can buy the morning after pill online.

8. Women and girls over age 17 can usually buy the morning after pill without a prescription.