I was really getting nervous about my dwindling supply of birth control pills, but this is China, right? They have the famous one-child policy, so birth control has to be available. Of course, in the US you have to have an exam with a physician before you can get a prescription for “the Pill.” However, today I learned that in China you can buy birth control pills over-the-counter at the pharmacy! Still, there’s always some fear that you’re not getting the real deal with drugs here, so it’s a little frightening.
Today I bought two months worth of birth control for the awesomely low price of 19RMB/month (~$2.50). The brand is Marvelon with 0.150 mg desogestrel and 0.021 ethinylestradiol. It’s actually different from my current prescription. I was using Ortho Tri-Cyclen®, containing varying amounts of norgestimate (0.180 mg – 0.250 mg) and ethinyl estradiol (0.025 mg). I’ve never been on this particular dosage of estrogen/progestine, so who knows what it will do to me.
Actually, I’ve been doing a lot of research online. Google pointed me to this page containing lots of nice charts and figures. I found that the brand Marvelon is equivalent to Desogen® or Ortho-Cept® in the U.S. That’s good, right? And I was relieved to find Marvelon had an English website (a Canadian one) in addition to their Chinese website. Very useful.
I’ve been far too embarrassed to ask anyone to help me with this, so I was madly searching online for some discussion about finding birth control in China. But the information for English-speaking foreigners living in China somehow doesn’t touch on the subject of oral contraceptives. Everyone’s full of advice about a lot of things, but I couldn’t find any discussion of birth control pills — where to start looking or what the process would be like. (I imagined having to go to some awful hospital for an invasive exam.) So, anyway, I feel obliged to mention my experience online.
I started out by walking into a pharmacy and showing the pharmacists the packaging from my current prescription. They were completely baffled, and I failed to look up any related vocabulary before beginning the conversation, so I left. Then I tried calling one of my teachers: “I have a very embarrassing question to ask you…” She couldn’t figure out what I meant, so finally I went home and looked up the word “birth control”: 节制生育 (jie2zhi4 sheng1yu4). I called her back, armed with this new knowledge, and she instantly understood. She gave me a different term — 避孕药 (bi4 yun4 yao4) — and sent me back to the pharmacist. Huzzah! They had both “the Pill” and emergency contraception. Wow.
I know this is kind of personal stuff to broadcast so publicly, but it’s really very important that information about birth control isn’t buried. I hope it helps somebody out.
I am in Jiangsu Province in a small town and the only bc pills I can find are once a month pills that contain levonorgestrel (6mg) and quinestrol (3mg). The only information I can find online is that there aren’t a lot of studies done on this pill and that it isn’t recommended by western doctors. Has anyone tried taking this pill? Any input? I am trying to decide between that and an IUD and the Chinese IUD’s apparently also have a very poor review. My Chinese friend she had to go to six different hospitals before they had success removing her’s.
@Mary – I have seen the pill you’re talking about but haven’t used it myself. You mean this one, I think:
月悦安 (yuè re ān, yue4 re4 an1) – an oral contraceptive with levonorgestrel (6mg) and quinestrol (3mg). I was pretty mystified by the instructions for this one. It is 4 pills a month, but it’s not entirely clear to me how to take them. The generic brand is Yue Ke Ting. Price is 12.9 RMB/box (1 month).
Another search reveals a little more info.
I found this kind of discouraging info (from 2005) about the levonorgestrel/quinestrol pill.
Link:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/585003.html
Here’s one scientific study (from 2007) about this pill published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and conducted by Shanghai University:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17434014
If you are not comfortable with your options in your town,
I’m sure the nearest big city would have more options. If you visit once or twice a year, you could just buy what you need. I would consult a doctor.
Stay safe! And best wishes!
Thank you for this!!!
I lived in China for a year and I just signed to go back for 2yrs more. I was on YAZ when I was over there in Macau, China. It was everywhere and easy to find. As, Yasmin its Generic brand. I came home to the US to find Yaz has many Lawsuits about bloodclots and high risk for many health probs. I saw my doctor and she recommended me switching to Orth-tri cyclen lo when I get to China. I informed her that doesn’t exist in China. So, I was reseaching and thanks to your site I see Marvelon, Femilon and Diane may be choices I’ll have to try to find in Macau, China or HK. Thank you so much. And please e-mail me if you’ve been on any of these brands and feel there is a warning I should know about. I loved YAZ but its a big risk and been told I shouldn’t take. Unfortunately, its very accessible in China. Thanks and any response are welcomed :)
Hey I was just wondering where the pharmacy was in beijing where you went to get these pills?
the sister said: “Its free here in the uk!”
The emergency pill is, the standard pill isn’t.
First, I’m amazed the original post was written in 2006 and is still useful for women today. One would think after 6 years, someone would have made some sort of progress, company, etc that would assist women with woman’s health questions and problems. Guess not.
Second, I have spent the last week visiting pharmacy after pharmacy in Shanghai, looking for different birth control pill options. I found one pharmacy on Nanjing dong lu (Shanghai’s no 1 Pharmacy) that offered a plethora of birth control pill options. The problem is, except for Yasmin, Marvelon, and Mercilon, the rest are completely in Chinese. I would prefer to put something in my body that I understand as fully as possible. (And with all the recent Yaz and Yasmin lawsuit issues, and FDA recall I guess it’s down to Marvelon and Mercilon.)
Third, I’ve never taken birth control pills before, so i’m a little concerned i’m going to have side effects like crazy mood swings or break through bleeding.
SO, what I suppose i’m saying here is, I’m going to keep looking for other pills, and in lieu of finding other options i’ll give marvelon a try. AND since finding and taking birth control pills was only half my question, I’ll do future women in China a favor and post my experiences on my pill of choice in a month or two.
Hi all, I’ve had the same experience. I’m about to go off my regular birth control pills and try Marvelon which I found on my own at a local pharmacy. I called my OB in the States to see if it was legit, and she said it looked like it was, and that with Marvelon I don’t have to have any periods. She said I can just continue taking it, without taking the 7 day break at the end of the month. I did some internet research to see if this was harmful, and was surprised to find that some doctors say it is ok. Has anyone heard about taking Marvelon like this? I’m a little scared about side effects, but going to try it for a few months to see how it goes. Thanks for all the posts!
Update since august: I promised I would update after a few months on marvelon so that anyone one finding themselves in a position similar to the one I was in several months ago would have more info to go off of.
I’ve had only one incident. About 14 or 15 days into my first month, I did have a half a day of what I can only describe as anxiety. I was antsy, cried at the drop of a hat, and felt all in all terrible for no reason that I could logically voice. It lasted one afternoon. I had warned my oh-so-sweet boyfriend that the birth control pills could affect me, and so he came over, rubbed my back and watched movies with me until I felt better.
A friend (who is not a physician of any kind) suspects that my one afternoon of crazy was my body’s way of dealing with the changes caused by the pill. I would like to agree.
My periods, in the past being what I would consider normal, are now very light and short. I have had no cramping.
In short, marvelon has worked well for me so far. I’ll try to remember to update again in a few months. I hope this has helped anyone who is considering starting birth control pills in China.
@Jackie – Thanks for the update! I’m glad to hear you found Marvelon is still available and that it’s working alright for you. I just moved back to China and now live in Beijing. I’ll have to do a pharmacy visit soon to get an idea of what’s available here. I wonder if there are more options — given it’s 6 years later and it’s the (booming!) capital.
Hi ladies, and wow I’m so surprised that this thread is still going on! I’ve been living in china since 2009 and moved here in my early 20s and now I’m looking for oral contraception to clear my skin issues. I’m now in my mid to late 20s and I think my hormones are in over drive and I really would like to get my hands on the pill. I really appreciate this blog and I’m surprised there isn’t more information out there. I’m going to have a look around Wuhan where I live now. I’ll report back in a few days time.
Hi Jackie, I really appreciate your updated post. Could you please provide more details about this pharmacy in shanghai? Is it easy to find? Do I need a prescription? I am going in a few weeks so I am going to be hunting this place down! I’m going to try mercilon as it has better reviews than marvelon for sick effects. Cheers
Thank you very much for this useful information. I just arrived one month ago to Foshan (Guangdong). I took Diane 35 for ten years and I changed 6 months ago because of my headaches. But my face begin to have a lot of acne (it was the reason that my doctor prescribe it to me 10 years ago), so I decided to “come back” with Diane. I prefer to have headaches but a “clean” face! So, for your information, the actual price for a box with 21 pills here in south of China is 69 RMB. So cheaper than in France (almost 20 euros!). And it is very easy to find (I bought it in a little “drug store” in front of my condo). It was very useful to have the chinese name in Pin Yin (thanks to a blog!): Dà yìng sàn shi wù 35 and the laboratory is BAYER. You need to be patient with the seller (like always here!) because when I showed him the paper with the name in pinyin he gave me a “Durex Condom!” then he gave me a box of another pill. I don’t speak cantonese at all! but I insisted repeating the name of Diane 35 and It works!
I’m living in Beijing and would like to buy Mercilon but I’m not so sure if I can trust medicines? I mean everything can be fake here and apparently these pills are so cheap compared to Europe, can they be real/safe? And where could I buy them?
Thanks for your advise!
@Tina: I just bought a box of Marvelon today at a Beijing pharmacy. I honestly don’t know how to verify that it’s a real product. However, mine comes in a sealed pouch within the box and has stamped (and labeled in English/Chinese) a “Valid to” date, “Batch No”, “Production date”, and “License No”. The info sheet inside also includes contact info. Going to the Marvalon website, I don’t see a place to verify by batch number, but all in all I’m comfortable relying on this. It looks as real as it gets. I wouldn’t take something that seemed to be expired, where the packaging looks tampered with or unsealed, or from a very small pharmacy. But really I’m no expert.
I am so thankful for your posts. We just moved to Beijing from East Hampton, NY and my daughter is out of her birth control pills. I am heading to a pharmacy and feel better informed. She also needs them for skin and cramps so it sound like Marvelon may be the best option. Your advice is extremely helpful. I will post an update.
Wow I am so thankful for this post! I have previously been on Triphasil but had to switch over to Trigestrel before coming to China. But i feel like this pill has made me put on weight. I have also used Yaz in the past but now reading about lawsuits has me feeling uncomfortable. From what i can read here, Marvelon is the best option, but my mother tells me to go with Diane. Please can anyone here give me some advice about which way to go on this. If anyone can recommend one over the other it would be really helpful. My current pill is about to run out in a few days! Great post and thread!!!
It’s been nearly a year since anyone has posted a comment here, but I thought I would give it a try anyways, since it’s still ridiculously difficult to find any posts about birth control in China.
Elizabeth, I read your post before taking a year-long trip to China, and I ended up getting Marvelon like you recommended. I used it for the duration of my trip, and I even brought home several months’ supply since it’s so much cheaper than American birth control without the hassle of a prescription. However, I went off of Marvelon about six months ago because my husband and I decided that we wanted to try to have a baby. So far I haven’t had any luck getting pregnant, and I’ve been getting discouraged. I’ve also been hearing crazy stories about the lengths the Chinese government is willing to take to keep women in China from getting pregnant, including forced abortions and/or putting contraceptives on shelves that render the user sterile. I don’t want to panic and assume that Marvelon has somehow made me sterile, but I can’t help wondering…
Have you heard any stories about women getting off of Chinese Marvelon and trying to get pregnant?
Sorry, I shouldn’t have said nearly a year since the last post. I was assuming that the most recent comments had been posted at the top, near the end of the article. I should have scrolled down to the bottom of the page first. :-/
Hello! I am also very grateful for this information! I am living in Fuzhou and am currently using a nonhormonal iud as birth control but have recently considered adding a bc pill to help with my acne. All the info here has been helpful in deciding what to do so please continue to update!! :)
I’m so glad I found this post! I’m headed to China later this year, and as here in NZ I can’t get more than a 6 month prescription at a time, I’m very happy to hear the contraceptive pill is easy to come by in China. The only downside seems to be the lack of range, and the price compared to what I pay here (NZ$5 for 6 months supply). But hey, it really isn’t that bad, and better than the alternative!! Than you so so much for this info!!
hello,am so thankful for the information i have so far gotten from here.
i have been in China for 8 months and have been using the one month pill,does anybody know the effects ,can i still continue using it?
Thank you so much for this post! I’m going crazy trying to find some informations about the pill here in China!
I’ve never took it before and I wanted to start now, so I’m looking around Beijing to find a foreign hospital to do some blood tests and see which kind of pill would be better for me.
I got a bit disconsolate talking to some foreign friends: they worried me about the risk to find fake pills here…and speaking to some chinese friends didn’t make it better, because they didn’t even know the difference between the birth control pill and the “morning-after pill” :(
@Rachel D. — Apologies for the enormous delay in posting/replying to your comment. It was stuck in spam!
Oh my goodness, your comment totally freaks me out. I don’t know! How worrisome. I’m not a doctor, so I have no idea how to respond. Have you talked to a doctor? Please let me know if you learn anything!