Pharmacy provision of medical abortifacients in eight Mexican cities

Objective

Previous research suggests women frequently use misoprostol to self-induce abortion in Mexico. In many settings women obtain the medication from a pharmacy. The objective of the study is to better understand pharmacy staff provision of misoprostol in eight Mexican cities.

Methods

From a census of pharmacies provided by the Secretary of Economy, we selected 24 pharmacies in each city. Mystery client asked for a drug to interrupt a pregnancy. If the pharmacy vendor did not mentioned misoprostol spontaneously, the mystery clients asked directly for misoprostol. The mystery client recorded in a format the information provided by vendors after the interaction took place.

Results

Preliminary results from data obtained from two cities, shows that 18% of the vendors in Tuxlta and 11% in Guanajuato spontaneously recommended a drug to interrupt a pregnancy. The drug mentioned with more frequency was Cytotec a brand that contains misoprostol (75% in Guanajuato and 41% in Tuxtla), followed by drugs containing misoprostol and diclofenac (25% in Guanajuato and 21% in Tuxtla). When the mystery client directly inquired about Cytotec, 95% of vendors in Tuxtla and 100% in Guanajuato responded that had heard of the drug. However, only 28% of vendors in Tuxtla and 3% in Guanajuato recommended an effective dose to cause abortion.

Conclusion

Misoprostol recommendation is common at Mexican pharmacies. Recommendation of effective doses is higher in Guanajuato compare with Tuxtla. At this moment we have completed fieldwork in the other six cities and we will conduct data analysis to complete our study.