Published November 21, 2014 (current as of December 24, 2024)
Angeliq (drospirenone, estradiol) is a hormone-based medicine used to relieve the symptoms of menopause. Unfortunately, it has been wrongly prescribed as an oral contraceptive (birth control pill). In two cases, physicians provided women with samples of Angeliq to take as birth control. Both women took Angeliq for several months until the samples were finished. The mistakes were discovered when the women took prescriptions for further supplies of Angeliq to their pharmacies and referred to them as “birth control pills.”
Angeliq has a number of similarities to birth control pills that might have played a role in the mix-ups. Angeliq comes in a28-day package similar to how birth control pills are packaged. “Angeliq” also sounds like a woman’s name—many birth control pills also have female-sounding names such as Portia and Yasmin. In addition, the sample package of Angeliq does not have information pointing out that the medicine is used for symptoms of menopause. Most important, the hormones contained in Angeliq are similar to the ingredients in birth control pills: progestin and estrogen. However, the dose of progestin in Angeliq is less than that used in birth control pills, and the strength of the estrogen in Angeliq is also different from the strength used in birth control pills. So women using Angeliq instead of birth control pills could become pregnant. And that’s exactly what happened to a woman we heard from through our consumer error reporting program. Her doctor had given her Angeliq samples for birth control, and now she believes she is pregnant!
Here’s what you can do: Even when you receive samples from your doctor, it is safest to call the pharmacy where you fill other medicine prescriptions to let the pharmacist know about the samples. This way, the pharmacist can be sure there are no interactions between the sample medicines and any other medicines you take. When you do this, be sure to tell the pharmacist why you are taking the medicine. This will help uncover any possible errors, as a pharmacist would recognize that Angeliq is not effective as a birth control pill.
