Fake Birth Control Pills

[Bcgardener]

Not sure if this should be in general or medical so thought I would start here. I have two male staff at work in their early twenties and both now have pregnant girlfriends. Apparently both the girls were on the contraceptive pill and were buying them from the same source , a pharmacy that sold contraceptive pills at a discount. It appears pretty obvious that they were fake pills. Is this a common occurrence in Thailand ?

I know other medicines are faked so I guess the contraceptive pill is not immune to this, however if this practice is widespread could this be one of the contributing factors to the high teenage pregnancy rate here? Be interested if anyone else has seen something similar or has more info on where these fake pills come from and how common they are. Thanks

[impulse]

Given that the best paying, most secure job available to a lot of Thai women is "mother of some foreigner's kid", I would also question whether they were actually taking them....

Which, BTW is definitely NOT unique to Thailand. I know quite a few guys back home who paid child support for many years, whose kids were conceived as a "parting gift", long after the wife had already decided to end the marriage.

Edited May 14, 2015 by impulse

[Bcgardener]

Impulse, there was no mention of foreigners here. They are both young Thai guys that work in the factory and live a normal working class Thai life with the usual over consumption of cheap Thai whisky and the belief that they will one day win the "grey" lottery if they spend enough on tickets, so no advantage to the girlfriend getting pregnant on purpose unless being stuck in that sort of rut is considered an advantage

[impulse]

My bad for making that leap.

But even with no foreigners in the equation, I'd still wonder about the whole story. It wouldn't be the first, nor the last time that women have their own life (and reproductive) plans that conflict with the plans of their significant other.

Strangely, I had a discussion in a thread a few months back with a guy who is sending Thai purchased birth control pills home to his sister, because they're so much cheaper here. I suggested he also send her some diapers- she may need them.

Perhaps your co-workers exonerate my suggestion, which was generally taken by him to be less than helpful.

[CharlieH]

MOVED to Health & Medicine.

[attrayant]

This is what happens when people buy homeopathic birth control pills.

[h90]

The most unwanted pregnancy with Birth Control Pills, happens because not eating them:

Forgot to eat them

Don't eat them on purpose

.....

[Kaalle]

Scary as hell. Thats my comment.

[Sheryl]

I have never heard of fake BC pills here. They are already so inexpensive that there would be little point/profit in counterfeiting them.

But the bit about them being sold "at a discount" gives some pause. One wonders why/how...possibly past expiration date?

Would help to know the brand of pill and expiration date, which would appear on them.

The woman either forgetting some days, or intentionally not taking the pills, also a definite possibility.

[chiang mai]

Agreed, no money to made from counterfeiting a product that only costs 160 baht a month to begin with!