‘Emergency contraceptive pill abuse can cause infertility’ - Dr Adusa-Poku

A pharmacist, Dr Richard Adusa-Poku, has warned women to stop abusing emergency contraceptive pills because they have negative health implications.

He said emergency contraceptives are meant for women who have had unplanned or unprotected sex but some ladies now use them as normal contraceptive pills.

Dr Adusa-Poku, who is the Managing Director and Superintendent Pharmacist of Garrison Pharmacy, noted that "when you are having sex, for example, twice, maybe in a week or maybe six or eight times in a month and every intimacy that you have, you go for the emergency contraceptive pill, that is dangerous and that is not good because these are high-dose hormonal preparations purposely to stop pregnancy from occurring".

He told Adehye FM's Elisha Adarkwah in an interview on the sidelines of the inauguration of Garrison Pharmacy in Kumasi that abuse of emergency contraceptive pills affect women’s hormonal balance and menstrual period, which could lead to infertility.

"They are abusing it," he said, adding: "It will affect your fertility, it will affect your mensuration, too, because it is hormonal and that will not help a lady, so, let's be careful in abusing this drug".

Explaining how the emergency contraceptive pill is used, he said: "Maybe you’re a married person, you realised that you are not in your safe period and had sex with your husband; that is when you use your emergency contraceptive pill but not when you know that you are going to visit your boyfriend and you are going to have sex".