Retail sales of emergency contraceptive drug “Postinor” for 1.5 years of war increased by 20%, follows from the released data of the company “Business Credit”.
Thus, during the six months of 2023, an average of about 22.6 thousand packs of this drug were sold per month, while in 2022 an average of 18.779 thousand packs per month, in 2021 – 17.163 thousand.
At the same time, the average price of the drug at the end of 2021 was 232, 49 UAH per pack, at the end of 2022 – 335 UAH, at the beginning of the second half of 2023 – 360 UAH.
In total, according to analysts of “Business Credit”, in 2022, 225.354 thousand packages of “Postinor” were sold in the retail network (9.42% more than a year earlier) for a total amount of UAH 65.252 million (+36%).
At the same time, following the results of the first half of 2023, 135.549 thousand packs of this drug for UAH 48.382 mln were sold in the retail network.
“Postinor” – a drug of emergency contraception. Emergency contraception is a method that can be used episodically. It should not replace regular contraception. At the same time, emergency contraception does not prevent pregnancy in all cases.
As reported, on August 17, a petition on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers with a call to ensure over-the-counter sale of emergency contraceptive drugs has collected the required number of votes for consideration.
However, on August 30, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmygal in response to the petition instructed the Ministry of Health to further study the issue of ensuring over-the-counter sale of such drugs.
“The Ministry of Health does not deny the revision of the legal status (category of release), namely the transfer of drugs used for emergency contraception to the group of over-the-counter medicines with the introduction of certain restrictions on their release by the age of patients by making appropriate changes to the registration materials,” Shmygal’s response to the petition reads.
Earlier, a number of experts spoke out against the uncontrolled use of emergency contraception drugs.
In particular, oncogynecologist of the medical network “Dobrobut” Alena Samokhvalova believes that the need to obtain a prescription for such drugs will not affect the ability to use them effectively, as they can be used within 72 hours, but she noted the risks of frequent use of emergency contraceptive drugs.
For her part, Larisa Zakhurdaeva, head of the obstetrics department at the Leleka Medical Center, believes that the constant use of this method of preventing unwanted pregnancies is unacceptable, but that over-the-counter access to emergency contraception should be maintained in times of war, given the limited access to medical care, the high risk of violence during hostilities, and internal and external migration.
In February, in a resolution signed after a year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Parliament, among other things, condemned the use of sexual and gender-based violence as a weapon of war and emphasized that it constitutes a war crime. In doing so, it called on the EU and countries hosting women and girls fleeing Ukraine to guarantee access to sexual and reproductive health and rights services, in particular emergency contraception, including for rape survivors, and to support the provision of these services in Ukraine.
As of the end of June, Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office had recorded 208 cases of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), 80 criminal proceedings were under investigation, 28 Russian military personnel had been notified of suspicion, five cases were pending in court, and one Russian military officer had been sentenced.
