Here’s the short answer: No.

Okay, now for the longer answer. Plan B delivers a wallop of hormones – at least twice the amount that you’d get in a high dose birth control pill. We doctors just don’t know what effect such a massive dose of hormones might have on a woman’s body over time, including an increase in the risk for blood clots and strokes. That’s because there have been no studies done on using the morning after pill as anything but a one-shot emergency contraceptive.

If you try to use Plan B as ordinary contraception, you will be, in effect, going into the “do-it-yourself” research business, with yourself as chief guinea pig. You’ll be risking your health while not developing a responsible approach to birth control. There are plenty of effective, tested contraceptives on the market. Use this medicine only for the purpose it was intended to serve.

- Yvonne S. Thornton, MD, MPH