New Year’s Eve is a very pleasant celebration for many people, but for some it is also an evening to color outside the lines a bit. For example, research shows that many more morning-after pills are sold in the week after New Year’s Eve.
That researchers write of the Texas Tech University in the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal. 10 percent more morning-after pills were sold to women between 15 and 44 years old compared to the rest of the year, amounting to about 41,000 additional birth control pills in the US in the first week of 2022. For the start of 2024 a similar increase is expected. People have unprotected sex more often than usual during New Year’s Eve.
Serious study
This sounds like a funny investigation for the Christmas holidays, but in the US – with its strict abortion regulations – it does have a serious undertone. People not only have more sex on New Year’s Eve, but are also sexually abused more often. In addition, many clinics and shops are closed, which may increase the need for the morning-after pill in the following week.
The researchers therefore did not rush into their study overnight. They looked at the sales figures of levonorgestrel – the official name of the morning-after pill – in the week after New Year’s Eve between 2016 and 2022. The pill works if you take it a maximum of 96 hours to possibly 120 hours after unprotected sex. The following applies: the sooner, the better. This also makes it important that shops open again quickly after New Year’s Eve, so that people can purchase the pill.
Also on Valentine’s Day
Ultimately, sales figures in the week after New Year’s Eve increased by 0.63 pills per thousand women between the ages of 15 and 44. As mentioned, this amounts to 41,000 additional morning-after pills sold.
The researchers also looked at other holidays, such as Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day and Independence Day. After Valentine’s Day, 0.31 more pills were sold per thousand women. The other two holidays saw only a minimal increase in sales figures.
Time for policy
There are a few minor comments to be made about the study. For example, not all sales figures were known for every store or clinic in the US. You also cannot simply generalize the figures to other countries or situations, for example.
Nevertheless, the researchers believe that certain holidays, for example because of alcohol consumption, are important for government policy to be implemented. Consider anti-alcohol campaigns or measures to reduce sexual violence. Access to contraception around the holidays should also be improved. This reduces the chance of unprotected sex and reduces the need for the morning-after pill. “Now more than ever, emergency contraception is necessary for people in the US, especially those living in regions where abortion is banned or regulations are very strict,” the researchers wrote.
The Netherlands
There are no known sales figures for the morning-after pill in the Netherlands in the week after New Year’s Eve. It seems logical that more unsafe sex takes place here than normal and that the morning-after pill is therefore taken more often. For example, we know that more STDs occur in the south of the country after carnival, which also indicates unprotected sex.
Last year, almost half a million morning-after pills were sold in our country in one year. They cost about 20 euros each. That’s quite a lot, considering there are European countries, such as Belgium and France, where the pill is available virtually free of charge. In the Netherlands too, there have been calls for some time now to make the emergency pill available for free.
The idea that a huge baby boom takes place nine months after Carnival is a myth. According to CBS figures, most children are born in September. And on September 25, most Dutch people celebrate their birthday. If you count back nine months, you arrive at… exactly December 25th. Most children are conceived around Christmas.
2024-01-01 18:06:41
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