Iowa Planned Parenthood Not Impacted by Pfizer Birth Control Recall

By Jillian Petrus, Reporter

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By Aaron Hepker

Story Created: Feb 2, 2012 at 12:14 AM CDT

Story Updated: Feb 2, 2012 at 2:03 PM CDT

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Pfizer voluntarily recalled about one million packs of Lo-Ovral 28 birth control pills and its generic brand, Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol tablets.

The drug company did this after learning some of the packets had the wrong amount of placebo-or inactive pills.

Taking a packet with the wrong amount of active pills could result in pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland says pills at their health centers in Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma have not been affected by this recall.

Dr. Brandon Bourgeous has been a practicing OBGYN for 10 years. He says one out-of-place pill in a birth control pack is not huge cause for concern.

“It would probably require a couple days at least to result in pregnancy,” Dr. Bourgeous said.

A birth control pack generally has 28 pills – 21 active pills and 7 in-active pills. Pfizer still has not said how many of the in-active pills were out-of-order in an at least 30 packs of Lo-Ovral 28.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if some pharmacies are already searching their records and notifying patients if they had distributed pill packages with those lot numbers,” Dr. Bourgeous said.

We contacted the drug company to find out what their policy is if their drug is related to an unintended pregnancy. A representative told us it’s too early to answer that question.

Doctors say proving this recall resulted in a pregnancy could be tough, but lawsuits have been filed for less. One local pharmacist tells us there is precedent for that type of situation.

“One case where a pharmacist failed to council on a drug interaction with the pill he was ultimately responsible for child support,” said Chris Tuetken, owner of Downtown Drug in Cedar Rapids.

For now, the company is telling women to talk with their doctors if they used Lo-Ovral 28 in the last several months and start using another form of contraceptive. You can visit their website by clicking here for more information.

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