How does the new over-the-counter birth control pill, Opill, work to prevent pregnancy?

Very nicely written article, full of information useful to the patients so they can make better heal care related decisions that involve oral birth control, all the important points are included and explained in simple (but not dumbed-down) language and without unnecessary details.

It is good that this kind of information is so easily available, hopefully patients that could benefit from it will read it and improve their reproductive health.

Now if only Japan could finally catch up with the rest of the developed world and increase the availability of contraceptives (including over the counter options) it would be a very nice development.

Well said @virusrex.

Or we could just have contraceptive pills for men. Oh wait, this has already been considered and studies done showed there were side effects... Much less than for women contraceptive pills though but hey let's have women carry all the burden for contraception, including health risk.

SAME# ...and they don't work properly yet. I'd happily take the burden if available.

Some of the most common side effects of Opill include nausea, breast tenderness, increased appetite, acne, fatigue and headaches, which ......

........includes many of the common reasons for avoiding sex thus making Opill an even more effective way to avoid pregnancy.

Meanwhile in Japan, you have to make an appointment to get Plan B...which utterly defeats the purpose of emergency contraceptive.

SAME#Today 09:31 am JST

Or we could just have contraceptive pills for men. Oh wait, this has already been considered and studies done showed there were side effects... Much less than for women contraceptive pills though but hey let's have women carry all the burden for contraception, including health risk.

I think you are unreasonably optimistic this will have "much less (side effects) than for women contraceptive pills". A male drug would have to render all sperm inoperative. The female contraceptive pills just manipulate the existing periods of infertility that occur naturally.

@TaiwanIsNotChina,

100% wrong, see this link: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/03/500549503/male-birth-control-study-killed-after-men-complain-about-side-effects

There is also the best contraceptive ever with no side effect and it even prevents STD. It's also very cheap. Condoms.

If you are interested to know a woman's perspective, I recommend this article: https://designmom.com/twitter-thread-abortion/

SAME#Today 04:20 pm JST

100% wrong, see this link: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/03/500549503/male-birth-control-study-killed-after-men-complain-about-side-effects

Why is it harder to develop birth control for men than women?

That's the a big question. There are a couple of reasons. One is that it's harder from a biological point of view. If you think about it, it's a numbers game: Women produce one egg a month, while men are producing millions of sperm constantly. With women, you can take advantage of their normal monthly cycle with the birth control pill. There's nothing equivalent to that in men.

And condoms are like comparing apples and oranges.

No need for a pill for something that can be controlled naturally

gcFd1July 24 11:33 pm JST

No need for a pill for something that can be controlled naturally

By having babies and putting them up for adoption? Not exactly conducive to the mother's health.

No need for a pill for something that can be controlled naturally

If the pill allows for easier, more effective control then the need is there, if there were no need there would not be any demand for it, this is obviously not the case.

These will be instantly banned in most red states in the USA.