What female contraceptive pills and yeast infection medications are available for sale in India?

Question

Hi! I'm an American who will be moving to India long-term after marrying my fiancee, who is an Indian citizen, and I need to know a few things about female health products avaliable there--primarily because we're not planning on having babies right away!

First of all, what types of contraceptive/birth control pills will I be able to get? Here we have things like Loestrin, Yaz, Lybrel, and so on. They are perscription medications, and I don't have a problem seeing an Indian doctor to get something similar. Can you give me a few names of pills?

Also, I suffer from frequent vaginal yeast infections, and I'm wondering if there are medications in India to treat them. Here the most popular thing we use is called Monostat (www.monistat.com) and I also take a natural supplement called AZO yeast.

Thirdly, does anyone know if I can get Valtrex (www.valtrex.com) at any Indian pharmacies?

Hope I've been specific enough! Thank you so much!

Answer 1

Hi Doubled, congratulations on your marriage and plans to move to Inida. My best wishes that this works well with you.

First question: obviously contraceptive pills are the best bet in the initial years i.e. till you have your first baby; subsequent to the first baby, Intra-uterine devices like Copper-T are recommended. You get contraceptive tablets in India fairly easily as an OTC product for most times. (but would be good to have a physician supervising your taking them through regular monitoring of some blood markers and your blood pressure etc) The common brands that I would recommend are: Ovral and Triquilar. I will write their composition here and you might wish to contact your physician in US before you go to India on which of these is better for you. I would think the latter is good, but would be good to get the views of your regular physician:

Ovral is Levonorgesterol 0.25 mg with Ethinyl estradiol 0.05 mg; You can also get Ovral-G which has Norgesterol 0.5 mg instead of Levonorgesterol and Ovral-L with Levonorgesterol of 0.15 mg and Ethinyl estradiol which is 0.03 mg

Triquilar has for the first 6 tabs 50 and 30 microgram of the same items i.e. Levonorgesterol and Ethinyl estradiol; and only 125 microgram of Levonorgesterol for the next five days and 125 microgram and 30 microgram of the two for the next 10 days.

For vaginal infections, you get vaginal pessaries easily; some of the common brands include: Clotrimazole 2% vaginal gels and tablets (brand names: Canestan 100mg, 200mg and 500mg; Clocip, Clomax, Gynostatum); you can also go for Miconazole vaginal 200 mg (Gyno-daktarin); You can also get others like Ecanal Vaginal (Econazole nitrate), Gynosan vaginal (chlorequinaldol) and Zoacide Vaginal (tinadazole, miconazole and Neomycin combination).

Valtrex, for herpez is available in select medical stores; e.g. they are available at Nath Brothers in Connaught Place and B.L. and Company at Yusuf Sarai market (close to AIIMS) in New Delhi. I am sure, likewise in other cities too, it will be available in select stores. Would be good to take some stock with you for your initial use till you find the best stores.

btw, you will be amazed at the cost of medicines in India; they are often less than one-twentieth of what you pay in US and easily even one-fourth of what you end up paying as co-pay in most insurance plans!

have a safe and healthy life in India. Hope you got very specific answers to your specific questions.

Answer 2

Cure Yeast Infection Holistically : http://YeastCured.com/

Answer 3

Check with the manufacturers of the medications thru the manufacturer site such as: http://loestrin.com (as an example) as well to see if they offer these medications over in India. They may offer them there but under different names.

You can also have your fiance check with pharmacies there to see what's available.

Also, check with your doctor as well because they may have some information on what's available in India.