Methodist Church wages war on contraceptive drug sophia

The Methodist Church of Kenya has welcomed the advisory by the ministry of Health to stop women against using the chinese contraceptive called sophia.

While speaking in Narok today,  the Methodist church presiding bishop Joseph Ntombura says women are risking their lives by using the banned pill.

The Ministry of Health issued a directive to women last week alarming them on the dangers of the  contraceptive.

According to the manager of the Ministry of Health’s National Family Planning Programme, Dr. Albert Ndwiga, women could still get pregnant even while taking the pill and that the pill has excess hormones that increase the risk of blood clots and heart disease in women. Ndwiga further warned that children born to mothers who had taken the pill risk developing secondary sexual characteristics at a very early age. Dr Ndwiga was addressing the media ahead of the World Contraceptive Day on Monday.

The pharmacy and poisons board banned the pill form the Kenyan market in 2008 after an analysis by the National Quality Control Laboratory found that the pill had dangerously high levels of abnormally high levels of the hormones levonorgestrel and quinestrol, the active ingredients in conventional contraceptive pills. However, in the recent past, the pill has slowly been crawling back into the market.

At the same time the pharmacy and licensing board noted that the drugs are still on shelves.

Sophia was banned in the country ten years ago after the ministry of health noted the adverse health effects caused by the pill.

The public outage by the Methodist church on the pill came as the church was fighting against Female genital mutilation in Narok 

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