Teratogenic Medicines

A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows that women who fill prescriptions for potentially teratogenic medicines are rarely counselled for contraception. Researchers assessed the prescriptions filled by almost 500,000 women in a large health maintenance organisation in California in 2001. They found that prescriptions for potentially teratogenic medications were filled by one of every six women studied. These women were no more likely to have received contraceptive counselling, filled a prescription for contraception, or to have been sterilised.

Ann Int Med 2007; 147: 370-6