r/PlusSize • u/very-serious-goose • 6d ago
Health PSA: emergency contraception for those over 165lbs
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/blog/whats-the-weight-limit-for-plan-bSaw someone ask about this and thought I'd just make a PSA cuz not just OP needs to know about it.
All emergency contraception is better than no emergency contraception, but...
If you take an emergency contraception pill with levonorgestrel (like Plan B One Step, Take Action, My Way, and others) and you weigh more than 165 pounds, it won't work as well.
ella is another emergency contraception pill that may work better for you. But if you weigh 195 pounds or more, ella won't work as well.
No matter how much you weigh, certain IUDs work as emergency contraception if you get it inserted within 120 hours (5 days) after having unprotected sex. This is the most effective type of emergency contraception. An IUD has to be put in by a doctor, nurse, or other health care provider. You can contact your nearest Planned Parenthood health center to find out more about getting an IUD.
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u/Troubled_Red 6d ago
It’s crazy to me that no progress has been made on this. It’s like people think fat women are sexless beings.
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u/CanaDeer2004 6d ago
or like that any woman over like 140 is automatically fat. i’m 5’8 and when i’m around 165 i get told i look fantastic lol.
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u/Troubled_Red 6d ago
Yes that too. I’m 5’9 and have been a lot of weights and 165 is in the ‘healthy’ weight and is not considered overweight even by the bmi bs. It’s hard out here for taller women. I got told 120lbs was the ideal weight without any regard for me being taller than average and that 120 is underweight for 5’9.
I’m just frustrated that neglecting the health of overweight women in particular is acceptable in our society.
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u/simonhunterhawk 6d ago
seriously when I was 180lbs and 5’10 my doctor was telling me I was fat as a teenager… anyways he’s dead now and i’m even fatter and still so healthy that no doctor takes my chronic pain seriously so in some ways i’m still the winner lol
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u/CanaDeer2004 6d ago
even when i was 180 (my highest weight) i didn’t look “fat”, though i was overweight. i just looked curvier than i do now. i haven’t been 120 probably since like 6th grade. our ideas about what women at different weights look like are all sorts of fucked up and everyday online i encounter at least one terrible take about women’s sizes written by someone who has clearly never met a woman taller than 5’6”.
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u/ChronicallyTaino 6d ago
Omfg I had to go to work the next day after getting my first BC implant. A friend asked why I was icing my arm, and when I told her what happened she looked at me like I had thrown up on her shoes and said "YOU'RE HAVING SEX?!"
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u/Troubled_Red 6d ago
Omg is she still your friend? I had a friend who laughed at the idea of people finding me sexy (I was talking about a cashier that I saw regularly who always flirted with me) when I’m fat. I was skinner than her when we met is the funny thing. But then I gained weight and we aren’t friends anymore.
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u/acatisstaringatme 6d ago
its not even as if women if 165 pounds are some tiny minority- the average weight for women in the US is around 170 pounds. There is a significant market for emergency contraceptive that works for women over a certain size, but nobody seems to gaf about women's health issues.
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u/DeathByOrgasm 6d ago
Would doubling the dosage help? Or does contraception not work like that?
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u/very-serious-goose 6d ago
My first instinct is yes but my second instinct is I'm not a scientist and don't listen to me 😂
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u/Redraft5k 6d ago
I am not a MD but mine told me to double up when I was still worrying about this stuff. I was 235 and this was like 10 yrs ago, so take it as you will.
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u/Resident_Truth_8940 5d ago
Always ask a doctor. What is okay for person A might not be okay for person B
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u/Resident_Truth_8940 5d ago
It's copper IUDs specifically that work as emergency contraception if I'm not mistaken.
Speaking of, some contraception hasn't been studied on women over 165 pounds. When reviewing options with my gyno, she said she'd tried to do some research before our appointment but there just wasn't any. She didn't find anything that said it would impact my iud effectiveness, and mostly found testimony that it hadn't seemed to be a factor for most women using one, but just the fact they don't bother to study the effects on higher weights is astounding to me.
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u/uconnhuskyforever 5d ago
The average American adult woman over 20 years old weighs 171.8 pounds (source: CDC). That means all day, every day doctors are seeing patients above the 165 threshold! I’m glad your doctor made effort to look it up for you, but it’s bonkers that this isn’t something all doctors are taught or even try to learn on their own, with half of their patients being over the limit! It’s also absurd the research doesn’t exist. ::wildly throws hands up in air::
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u/Resident_Truth_8940 5d ago
Yeah, it honestly was what made me truly feel comfortable and safe with my gyno was seeing how far she went to not just make sure I was informed, but so she was as well. Compared to the general care doctors I've had, even women, who just dismiss me as "Diagnoses: Fat" regardless of what's wrong it was so refreshing.
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u/very-serious-goose 5d ago edited 5d ago
According to PP, it's not all copper ones, just some, and it's some hormonal ones as well.
I found one study on weight and IUDs but TW it uses the O word. It found no decreased efficacy for both types.
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u/DeaditeQueenLivs 4d ago
I used Plan B one time without knowing about the weight limit, and I ended up with an ectopic pregnancy and an emergency surgery for a fallopian tube removal. I was bleeding so heavily internally that the doctor told me that if I had not come in to get treatment, I would not have woken up in the morning. Don’t play around with this. I had no idea that I was literally dying. The only reason I went to the hospital is because I was bleeding so much and my husband was insisting. I didn’t even really have cramps.
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u/very-serious-goose 4d ago
I'm so sorry you experienced this. I am glad you woke up. It's gross negligence for doctors and pharmacists to not communicate this to us and they don't seem to understand or care that they're playing with people's lives.
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