E-pills brisk sales fuel fear the youth are abusing drug

What you need to know:

E-pills are used to prevent pregnancy within 120 hours of intercourse and are available over the counter, with trade reportedly booming in the recent past especially during weekends and holidays.
Growing youth populations attracted to major towns by college and university education are major consumers of e-pills.
Incidents such as condom breakage, missing regular birth control pills and rape have also increased the use of e-pills.
An e-pill is equal in potency to almost 50 regular birth control pills which makes some experts fear they may cause serious risks such as blood clots.

Rising sales of emergency contraceptives commonly known as “morning-after pills” is worrying experts, following growing abuse by Kenya’s sexually active youth.

E-pills are used to prevent pregnancy within 120 hours of intercourse and are available over the counter, with trade reportedly booming in the recent past especially during weekends and holidays.

This has seen the wholesale price of the drugs rise by 40 to 50 per cent in the last three months as frequency of use goes up.

“E-pills are not supposed to be used as a regular birth control method due to their high hormonal content,” warned Ms Eunice Wachira who coordinates reproductive health services in Nyeri North district.

Some of the most popular e-pills sold in Kenya are Postinor, which is currently retailing at about Sh140 and Ecee2 which is selling at about Sh120.

Growing youth populations attracted to major towns by college and university education are major consumers of e-pills. Most of these youths live away from their parents or guardians.

Incidents such as condom breakage, missing regular birth control pills and rape have also increased the use of e-pills.

“The demand for e-pills is very high and they are mostly bought by young girls of between 19 and 26 years,” said a chemist attendant in Nyeri town who sought anonymity.

The e-pill became popular in Kenya as part of the birth control methods promoted by the National Council for Population and Development. They are highly favoured due to their high success rate with failure of less than two per cent.

A two-pill dose taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex and the second pill taken 12 hours later disrupts the uterus lining, suppressing or delaying ovulation and thus averting pregnancy.

Due to their high hormonal content only one dose within one menstrual cycle is recommended.

But with the growing sexually active youth population in the country, abuse of e-pills has become common, with some young girls using them more than two times in a month.

“Some of them come more than twice for the pills within a month. We normally don’t sell it to them and instead advise them on other birth control options,” said another chemist in Nyeri town who sought anonymity.

But with mushrooming chemists, availability of the drugs has become easy and restricting use difficult.

According to Dr Moses Mburu, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, taking more than the permitted dosage can cause hormonal imbalance and excessive bleeding.

An e-pill is equal in potency to almost 50 regular birth control pills which makes some experts fear they may cause serious risks such as blood clots.

Pro-life lobbyists especially in the US have risen strongly against the e-pills claiming that they can cause abortion and other health risks to women.