Progestin-only pills will disappear from shelves by mid-2017 –POPCOM

Commission on Population (POPCOM) executive director Juan Antonio Perez on Thursday sounded the alarm on the country's diminishing contraceptive stock, noting that one type of oral contraception will be unavailable in the Philippines by the middle of this year.

"I know of at least one method, the progestin-only pill, for which the last registration expired last April," Perez revealed at a media forum on family planning on Thursday. "This country can no longer import progestin-only pills, which is used by women who have just given birth and are breastfeeding."

Progestin-only pills, he explained, are preferred by a number of women because they have lower levels of hormones. This product will soon be gone from shelves and the government will soon run out of supply, he said.

He added, "We continue to raise the warning that by the middle of the year, more than 30 out of the 48 contraceptives with registrations with the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] will be off the list. They will no longer be available for importation."

Fellow panelist and reproductive health advocate Amina Evangelista Swanepoel, executive director of RH group Roots of Health, explained that while the original temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court only included Implanon and other implants, it was expanded to include the certificate of product registration (CPR) of all forms of contraceptives.

Swanepoel and the rest of the panel urged the Supreme Court anew to lift the TRO to ensure that women have access to a wide range of contraceptives.

READ: RH advocates want contraceptives TRO lifted, say legal limbo baseless

"We continue to ask that the Supreme Court listen to the voices, to the tide of concern by our people and lift this TRO, which affects more than 60% of the family planning and population program of this country," Perez said.

Cheaper pills the first to go

Perez further explained that products are registered by brand and not by classification. "These certifications are valid for three to five years. They will expire at different times in the next few years," he said.

"As a class, we know that progestin-only pills are no longer available in the country because the last registration expired in April. There are still quite a number of other oral contraceptive pills, which are combined or which have [more] hormones in them," he added.

While combined oral contraceptive pills (COCP) are available, Perez warned that the CPR of the cheapest brand will expire this year.

"We may have a situation that going into late 2017 and 2018, only the expensive pills will be available," he warned.

The Department of Health is currently doing an inventory of contraceptives in their bodega that can no longer be used because of the TRO, related to implants. The department's spokesperson Enrique Tayag said that they will soon issue a list of the contraceptives affected by the TRO.

The TRO, issued by the Supreme Court in 2015, bars the government from acquiring or distributing pills, injectables, intrauterine devices, implants, vaginal rings, and other brands. It has also kept the FDA from issuing CPRs to certain contraceptive drugs and devices. — BM, GMA News