Last fall, a European drug "identical" to Plan B One-Step, Norlevo, was found to be less effective in heavier women. Naturally, Americans wondered if the same was true for Plan B, since 23 percent of American women aged 20 to 44 are obese. A new report, however, states that emergency contraceptives are effective for women of any weight.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) requested a warning for Norlevo last year, stating that it may be less effective in women with BMIs over 25. Now, however, the EMA is stating that emergency contraceptives are effective in pregnancy prevention, regardless of weight. The EMA now claims that there "isn't enough data to support the previous warning to women about weight," Time reports.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Oysters from New York's past could shore up its futureUnder the Radar Project aims to seed a billion oysters in the city's waterways to improve water quality, fight coastal erosion and protect against storm surges
-
Today's political cartoons - November 24, 2024Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - taped bananas, flying monkeys, and more
-
The Spanish cop, 20 million euros and 13 tonnes of cocaineIn the Spotlight Óscar Sánchez Gil, Chief Inspector of Spain's Economic and Tax Crimes Unit, has been arrested for drug trafficking
-
Dark energy data suggest Einstein was rightSpeed Read Albert Einstein's 1915 theory of general relativity has been proven correct, according to data collected by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
-
New DNA tests of Pompeii dead upend popular storiesSpeed Read An analysis of skeletal remains reveals that some Mount Vesuvius victims have been wrongly identified
-
NASA's Europa Clipper blasts off, seeking an oceanSpeed Read The ship is headed toward Jupiter on a yearslong journey
-
Detailed map of fly's brain holds clues to human mindSpeed Read This remarkable fruit fly brain analysis will aid in future human brain research
-
Blind people will listen to next week's total eclipseSpeed Read While they can't see the event, they can hear it with a device that translates the sky's brightness into music
-
Melting polar ice is messing with global timekeepingSpeed Read Ice loss caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
-
An amphibian that produces milk?speed read Caecilians, worm-like amphibians that live underground, produce a milk-like substance for their hatchlings
-
Jupiter's Europa has less oxygen than hopedspeed read Scientists say this makes it less likely that Jupiter's moon harbors life
