Clinicians React to Over-the-Counter Birth Control Possibility

Doctors may soon play much less of a part in prescribing birth control, and many are okay with the reduced role.

In July, HRA Pharma submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration to sell a progestin-based birth control pill without a prescription in retail pharmacies.

"The fact that this pill is so safe, with such a short list of contraindications, it's a total no-brainer to figure out whether they are eligible or not," Daniel Grossman, MD, director of the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health program at the University of California, San Francisco, said.

Progestin-only birth control pills have fewer potential risks for women with specific health risks like heart conditions. Estrogen-containing birth control is associated with risk of blood clots.

Approximately 112 countries had some form of nonprescription access to oral contraception in 2015, according to a 2019 analysis published in BMJ Global Health.   

"Accessing contraception over the counter could be a game changer for people who experience common barriers to accessing clinics," said Melissa Kottke, MD, associate professor in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. "For example, this may help people who can't get an appointment for several months, who don't have a nearby clinician for care, who can't get off work or school to attend a clinic appointment, who do not have transportation, who need additional privacy, [or] who prefer to self-manage their contraception. Expanding contraceptive access is particularly important in a political landscape that is increasingly restrictive for reproductive rights."

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