![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A few days ago, I came down with a UTI, which has only happened to me once before, and which, like last time, only took three hours to go from asymptomatic to pissing alarming amounts of blood. And since it was late, and a long weekend, I had to go to the emergency room. First time ever.
In any case, the antibiotic I'm on is 500mg of Levaquin daily for ten days. Levaquin is the trade name for levofloxacin, which is a third-generation fluoroquinolone. Since I am already feeling much better (although sleepy, dizzy, and unable to handle bright sunlight - all side-effects of the medication), I am quite reasonably trying to figure out whether there is any drug interaction between Levaquin and my birth control pill (Microgynon30, which is 150 micrograms levonorgestrel and 30 micrograms ethinyl estradiol).*
The literature has not been helpful, partly because the female reproductive system, like the minds of the mentally ill, seems to be viewed with fear and superstition by most doctors; and mainly because pharmaceutical companies are (sensibly but infuriatingly) more concerned about minimizing their legal risk than finding the truth of the matter, and so will always suggest the most extreme precautions possible with no care for whether they are necessary. Pharmacists and doctors are the same way. Although we treat medicine as though it is a science, more often the methodology is "well, this can't hurt, so we might as well just in case it helps something." In a life-and-death situation, one understandably attempts to minimize all risks, but the unwanted side effect is blooming medical costs and doctoring that can be a bit too witch-doctor for my tastes.
Thus far, I have uncovered two items which are scientifically useful, and one which is dubious but provides clues.
( the scientific literature, and the sometime unfairness of being female )
In any case, the antibiotic I'm on is 500mg of Levaquin daily for ten days. Levaquin is the trade name for levofloxacin, which is a third-generation fluoroquinolone. Since I am already feeling much better (although sleepy, dizzy, and unable to handle bright sunlight - all side-effects of the medication), I am quite reasonably trying to figure out whether there is any drug interaction between Levaquin and my birth control pill (Microgynon30, which is 150 micrograms levonorgestrel and 30 micrograms ethinyl estradiol).*
The literature has not been helpful, partly because the female reproductive system, like the minds of the mentally ill, seems to be viewed with fear and superstition by most doctors; and mainly because pharmaceutical companies are (sensibly but infuriatingly) more concerned about minimizing their legal risk than finding the truth of the matter, and so will always suggest the most extreme precautions possible with no care for whether they are necessary. Pharmacists and doctors are the same way. Although we treat medicine as though it is a science, more often the methodology is "well, this can't hurt, so we might as well just in case it helps something." In a life-and-death situation, one understandably attempts to minimize all risks, but the unwanted side effect is blooming medical costs and doctoring that can be a bit too witch-doctor for my tastes.
Thus far, I have uncovered two items which are scientifically useful, and one which is dubious but provides clues.
( the scientific literature, and the sometime unfairness of being female )
