Warning on Online Pill Service

Experts have expressed concern at a new online service selling the Contraceptive Pill and the Morning After Pill.

The UK-based company, Dr. Thom, is selling the pills to women over 18 years old in the UK and Ireland. While women are required to submit a medical history and fill out a questionnaire before receiving their pills, they do not need to have a face-to-face consultation with a medical professional and this raises serious safety concerns, the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU) has warned. There is also no way of knowing whether medicines bought over the internet are counterfeit or genuine, it said.

Buying drugs over the internet is illegal in Ireland , however, the IPU recognized that some Irish women may buy emergency contraception online because of the difficulty in obtaining it here. It has called on the Government to allow pharmacists to provide the Morning After Pill to women without a prescription.

A study published in the British Medical Journal after patients in the UK were enabled to access Emergency Hormonal Contraception directly from pharmacists found that it did not appear to have led to an increase in its use or to a decrease in the use of other forms of contraception.

Posted Monday 30th June 2008