 "Photo:")
Dr. George is an Emergency Room physician with the University of Illinois at Chicago's Medical Center.
Q. Is it okay to stop taking antibiotics for a night in order to go out and drink, if I resume taking them the next morning?
A. The "no alcohol with antibiotics advice" is one of the oldest myths out there! There is little evidence to support alcohol abstinence when taking a course of antibiotics. One exception is an antibiotic named Flagyl which is used for vaginal trichinosis, some dental infections, and sometimes for intestinal infections. It is related to a drug known as Antabuse which, when ingested with alcohol, causes a violent vomiting episode. Antabuse has been used to help alcoholics abstain and become conditioned to associate vomiting with drinking. In a few rare cases, Flagyl has caused a similar reaction.
The other thing that comes to mind when one is taking a course of antibiotics is that he or she is presumably ill. In general, drinking when you are sick is not a great idea. (Unless, of course, it is to celebrate something really important like the White Sox World Series Championship. In that case, I would certainly drink.)
Dr. Ralph is an Emergency Room physician with the University of Illinois at Chicago's Medical Center.
Q. How safe is an oral contraceptive if taken within the same four-hour window each day? Eight-hour window each day? And, do you recommend using a spermicide, even though current research has shown its use causing tiny cuts in the mucus membrane?
A. As an emergency physician, contraception is not my area of expertise, but the complications of sex are.
If you are in a monogamous relationship and completely trust your sexual partner as being free of disease and disease contracting behavior, and pregnancy prevention is your only concern, then adding spermicide to your contraceptive regimen would be useful. However, if you are not in that kind of a relationship, then there are different issues. There are far more serious complications to having sex than getting pregnant, namely contracting or passing on HIV. Birth control pills and spermicides are not protection against HIV. Only the use of condoms offers protection from HIV transmission with sex!
I personally have not read the literature on spermicides causing microlacerations but assuming that is true, the implication here is that spermicides would make a woman more susceptible to HIV.
Are you using spermicide without condoms as contraception? If so, then you are definitely at increased risk of getting HIV and every other sexually transmitted disease. Are you using spermicide as an adjunct contraceptive with condoms? If so, you must realize that the failure of condoms as a contraceptive device has to do with their rupture, leakage or dislodgement ? all of which would not only expose you to live sperm, but also to sexually transmitted diseases. Adding spermicide may decrease the likelihood of pregnancy, but it will provide no protection against sexually transmitted disease. In addition, if it produces microlacerations, it may increase the likelihood of acquiring HIV. So the answer to your second question is yes or no, depending on what kind of relationship you are in.
Now on to your first question. Birth control pills are designed to mimic the diurnal rhythm of the hormonal system in the body. The closer to a 24-hour rhythm they are taken, the better they work. There is individual variation, but most would except that a 12-hour variation from this cycle is too much and a two-hour variation is probably okay. It is important to note that once you have "missed" a pill, you cannot assume contraceptive effectiveness until you start the next cycle.
As with all medical advice, consult your physician before beginning any regimen or if symptoms persist for more than five days.
Send your anonymous questions to pulse@chicagoflame.com.
Be the first to comment on this article!