Alpro Pharmacy and Bayer join hands to launch Alpro Birth Control Teleconsult

Alpro Pharmacy and Bayer launched the Alpro Birth Control Teleconsult to empower women in making educated decisions on family planning. Both Alpro Pharmacy and Bayer are part of United Nations Global Compact, and Alpro Birth Control Teleconsult is a joint initiative that contributes towards Sustainability Development Goal (SDG) 3 on Good Health and Well-Being as well as SDG 5 on Gender Equality.

“Alpro Birth Control Teleconsult connects healthcare professionals and patients remotely and conveniently, providing women with personalized family planning advice on choosing the right contraceptive methods,” said Lim En-Ni, chief pharmacist of Alpro Pharmacy, at the launch event.

The launch event was held in advance of International Women’s Day, and featured a roundtable discussion titled Women’s Empowerment and Family Planning with panelists including Dr Maiza Tusimin, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist and reproductive medicine specialist, Lim En-Ni, chief pharmacist of Alpro Pharmacy, and Sazzy Falak, a Malaysian celebrity.

Highlights from the roundtable discussion
Benefits of good family planning include:
·       Empowering women - Women who can control the number and timing of their children can take better advantage of educational and economic opportunities, improving their own future and that of their families.
·       Reducing the number of abortions overall, especially unsafe abortion - According to the WHO, around 45 percent of all abortion are unsafe, of which 97 percent take place in developing countries. [Available at https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/abortion. Accessed on 24 February 2023] Fewer unsafe abortions would lead to fewer maternal deaths and injuries.
·       Improving maternal health and child survival - Helping women avoid pregnancy too early, too late, or too often benefits them and their children.

The event was also attended by Lee Yin Chen, of Alpro Pharmacy, and Yamini Prakash, of Bayer Pharmaceuticals. “Bayer has a long history in women’s health and as a leader in hormonal contraception, we have been supporting family-planning programmes for more than 50 years. Besides access to family planning products, self-determined decisions in reproductive health require contraceptive awareness and knowledge.

“Providing women a safe, personal, and comfortable environment to obtain accurate information about their choices in family planning is important to us at Bayer, and going digital is the way forward. We are delighted to collaborate with Alpro Pharmacy which also shares a similar vision and mission to positively educate and empower women on family planning,” said Yamini.

Women’s health survey calls attention to unplanned pregnancy
According to a recent survey conducted by Alpro Pharmacy, unplanned pregnancy is one of the top five concerns amongst women in Malaysia. However, a quarter of the 1,300 women respondents do not use any contraception and nearly 50 percent rely on natural family planning or the pull-out method. [Knowledge and Perception of Women's Health Survey Results by Alpro Pharmacy involving 1358 respondents, December 2022]

The survey results also revealed that over 20 percent of the respondents are likely to use emergency contraception, also known as the morning after pill, which is intended only for backup contraception and should not be used as a primary method of birth control because it is less effective at preventing pregnancy compared with oral contraceptives. Also, frequent use of the morning after pill may cause periods to become irregular and unpredictable.