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Silicone breast implants sometimes break and leak, requiring further surgery and triggering other complications, so in 1992 the FDA banned their routine use. Last October an FDA advisory panel voted to allow more durable implants back on the market. Now the agency, which almost always follows its panels' advice, has delayed approval to implant maker Inamed until it gets more data about any long-term health risks. Silicone implants may yet make a comeback, but don't hold your breath...
...move that could allow Plan B to live up to its name, an advisory body of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently recommended that the progestin-only emergency contraceptive be sold at drugstores and pharmacies nationwide without a prescription...
Available without prescription in five states—Alaska, Hawaii, New Mexico, Washington, and California—and in 33 of the 101 countries where it is sold, Plan B is considered safe by FDA medical reviewers, the American Medical Association and the ACOG. The morning-after pill is a high dosage of birth control pills that works by inhibiting ovulation, fertilization or implantation. In this way, the emergency contraceptive differs from the abortion pill RU-486. While Plan B blocks a pregnancy from forming, RU-486 aborts a fertilized egg that’s attached to the uterine wall...
...FDA advisory committee found that the potential for misuse or abuse of the morning-after pill is slim. Opponents charge that easy access to the emergency contraceptive would lead to an over-reliance on the pill as a primary form of birth control. But according to a recent Planned Parenthood study, most women who had used Plan B did not mean to substitute it for more reliable contraceptives like the birth control pill. Nor is it likely that the morning-after pill will replace other contraceptives in the future, considering the high incidence of side effects like nausea and abdominal...
While the FDA usually heeds its committees’ recommendations, it is particularly important for the organization to follow the committee’s advice when it makes its final decision in February. In the three decades during which a woman can bear children, the risk of an accident—a condom tearing or a missed pill—is high. Selling the emergency contraceptive over the counter would provide women with a needed safety net and prevent an accident from turning into a disaster...