ATTA KENARE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Voices
simply no foreign-made birth control pills available at all. Many
doctors are wary of prescribing
the Iranian-made pills because
sanctions have made access to the
raw materials required to produce
them nearly impossible, making
many of these drugs unreliable.
I went to a gynecologist to see
if she could prescribe something
for me that was close enough to
the pills I take back home. I told
the doctor that I was not willing to take Yaz or Yasmin given
my prior experience with them. “I
know how horrible they are,” she
said, “but you only need to take
them until you get back to the U.S.
NARGES
BAJOGHLI
I don’t prescribe anything else to
my patients, because they’re simply worse. This is the best we have
in Iran now.” And she proceeded to
write me three other prescriptions:
one in case I had nausea, one in
case I experienced spotting, and the
other in case I developed extreme
headaches. “You’ll have to put up
with the potential weight gain and
mood swings. But if you get a blood
clot, come see me immediately.” I
walked out of her office with four
prescriptions in hand.
Astonished that good birth control that would not make a woman
sick had become so difficult to find,
I traveled to pharmacies throughout Tehran and Karaj the next day.
In Karaj, a burgeoning city 20 kilometers west of Tehran, a phar-
HUFFINGTON
08.18.13
Iranian
women fill
prescriptions
at a
pharmacy
in Tehran
in October
2012.