Broken or too-small birth control pills reported to Health Canada
OTTAWA — Health Canada is advising consumers that it’s received reports that some packages of the Alesse birth control pill that contain broken tablets or pills that are smaller than normal, potentially making the medication less effective.
The government says it’s received complaints that in packages of both Alesse 21 and Alesse 28, there has been at least one pill that is roughly half the size of the others.
It says the reduced size may also reduce the medication’s effectiveness at preventing pregnancy.
Health Canada says the complaints involved a package of Alesse 21, which contains 21 active birth control pills, that expires in August 2018, and a package of Alesse 28, which contains 21 active birth control pills and seven tablets that don’t contain hormones, that expires in April 2019.
