BY APOLLINE BERTY

In print | December 6, 2007

Beth Kotarski, the new director of Worth Health Center, has worked to make the emergency contraception method called Plan B, also known as the “morning after pill,” available to Swarthmore students through Worth. Plan B, described as a “second chance” on the Plan B Web site, is up to 89 percent effective at reducing the risk of pregnancy and can be taken up to 72 hours after intercourse, though its effectiveness is greater when used earlier.

Kotarski explains that the product has been on the market for the past five or six years. “Since my main discipline is reproductive health, I was a little surprised that it wasn’t here yet,” Kotarski said. “I think the reproductive services here have a full offering which is impressive for such a small college. So I see my role in the next year or so as just kind of tweaking those offerings and just making sure that we always stay on pace with other colleges and the latest offerings.”

According to the McKinley Health Center of University of Illinois Web site, “inhibiting the movement of the egg or the sperm through the fallopian tube), and may inhibit implantation by altering the lining of the uterus. It is not effective if the process of implantation has begun.”

Before Plan B became available at the health center, Worth offered a combination of birth control pills in high doses for emergency contraception. This, Kotarski explained, would provide an amount of progesterone comparable to the amount found in Plan B, but also a high dose of estrogen. “The reason people got very sick with the older method was because it had high doses of estrogen … but Plan B is just progesterone, and some women are sensitive to it, so they can experience nausea, but it’s not nearly in the numbers that the older method was,” Kotarski said. “Thus it’s more effective because women can keep it down long enough for it to work.”

The possible side effects, though rare, include nausea, cramps, menstrual changes, dizziness, breast tenderness, diarrhea and moodiness. However, Kotarski said, “Plan B should not make you sick.”

“I’m a great believer in a woman’s right for choice and I think it’s being offered in an appropriate way. It’s not being proselytized, but it is being offered for women who choose that,” Associate Dean for Student Life Myrt Westphal said.

The Plan B pills are now available at the health center for use in emergencies. “They just come in and are interviewed by the nurse who’s here, and it’s dispensed right here,” Kotarski said. The college purchases Plan B for $31 a dose and sells it to students for $15, absorbing almost half the cost. Kotarski explains that surrounding pharmacies also have it, but at a higher price, about $40. “I’ve checked at Genuardi’s, Target, they all have it. It’s just that it’s certainly more expensive,” Kotarski said. There are, however, some concerns about making Plan B available, such as that it might detract from students’ use of other contraceptive devices. “The studies have never borne that having emergency contraception readily available is going to make women less likely to use another, more effective method,” Kotarski said.

Plan B should not be used as a replacement for other forms of contraception. “The only thing that comes up [regarding Plan B] as a Sexual Health Counselor is don’t use Plan B as regular birth control: it’s only for emergencies,” Sexual Health Councilor Mark Duglash ’08 said.

Kotarski explains that though its rate of effectiveness is higher than the previous “morning after” method offered at Worth Health Center, it is still less effective than condoms, the pill or other more common forms of birth control. “lowers in effectiveness if used too often, thus the title ‘emergency,’” Kotarski said, “but we would never prevent a woman who needs it on a monthly basis from taking it. We would just wonder [if she needs] better counseling or control methods because it’s not as effective if it’s used monthly.”

Westphal believes that the new method has been presented in a very considerate fashion. “I appreciate the way it’s being publicized, because it’s not in the face of people who disagree with that method, so I think it’s being handled sensitively,” Westphal said.

As for future plans concerning the center, Kotarski said that college health centers have lost their status as clinics, preventing them from having access to less expensive birth control from the manufacturers. “So, in other words, if it’s $41 for a pack of pills, that’s what we have to pay,” Kotarksi said. As a result, WHC is switching their birth control pills to ones on the generic label in order to save money. “They’re just as effective, just as good,” Kotarski said.

Dluglash saw the new additions to WHC as a sign of the health center’s commitment to adapting to change. “I think Worth is great, I think Beth is great, I think we’re moving up with the times,” Dlugash said.

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