Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About...
Side Effects
What are the side effects of emergency contraceptive pills?
Emergency contraceptive
pills (also known as "morning
after pills" or "day after pills") have no long-term or serious side effects, and emergency
contraception is safe for
almost every woman to use. In general, progestin-only
emergency contraceptive pills – like Plan
B – have fewer side effects than combined
emergency contraceptive pills.
You might find yourself feeling queasy and some women throw
up after taking emergency
contraceptive pills. You might also get a headache, feel tired
or dizzy, have some lower abdominal pain, or find your breasts are
more tender than usual. If you do feel this way, it should stop within
a day or two. Some women also find that the female hormones in the
pills (either progestin
alone or a combination
of progestin and estrogen) cause unexpected bleeding; this is not
dangerous and should clear up by the time you have your next period.
The pills might also cause your next period to come early or late.
(For more information about how emergency contraception might affect
your monthly cycle, click
here).
One large study by the World Health Organization looked at the side
effects from the two types of emergency
contraceptive pills. About one in four (23%) women who use Plan
B or other progestin-only
emergency contraceptive pills feels
sick to her stomach. A very small proportion of women (6%, or about
one in 17) throw up after taking these pills. Nausea and vomiting
are more common after taking “combined”
emergency contraceptive pills: Roughly half (51%) of all women feel
sick to their stomachs and about one in 4 (23%) throw up. To prevent
nausea and vomiting, you can take the non-prescription anti-nausea
medicine meclizine (also sold under the brand names Dramamine II or
Bonine). Research shows that taking two 25 mg tablets 1 hour before
using combined emergency
contraceptive pills reduces the risk of nausea by 27% and vomiting
by 64%, but this drug doubles your chances of feeling drowsy (to about
30%). If you happen to throw up within 1 hour of taking a dose of
either type of emergency
contraceptive pills, some health care providers recommend repeating
that dose just in case your body didn’t have a chance to absorb
all of the hormones in the medication.
For a thorough and up-to-date academic review of the medical and social
science literature on emergency contraception, including side effects,
click here 
.