Women’s healthcare is having something of a renaissance in the UK.

Sixty years after the contraceptive pill was first made legal in the UK, the MHRA authorised the prescription-only medicine (POM) to pharmacy (P) medicine switch of two brands of desogestrel contraceptive pills, Lovima and Hana, in July last year.

And in February this year, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced it was launching a consultation on whether to switch the hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drug Gina 10mcg to a P medicine.

For Anna Maxwell, the CEO and founder of Lovima manufacturer Maxwellia, these moves herald an era in which women can more easily take control of their own reproductive health.

It was “actually quite challenging” for women to get the advice they needed from doctors “even pre-pandemic”, she says. “They want to be able to manage their health without the need for a GP appointment or prescription.”

Lovima's POM to P switch is “one of the biggest revolutions in women's health for the last 60 years”, she says. “It's finally putting women in charge of their contraception.”

But the change also opens up many opportunities for community pharmacists, Ms Maxwell points out.

Perfectly placed to provide advice

Pharmacists have already proven their nous in women’s reproductive health through emergency hormonal contraception services, and their extensive training makes them “highly equipped” to consider any safeguarding or consent issues that they may encounter when dispensing contraception, she says.

She believes that combined, these factors create a “massive opportunity to create a high value category” for contraceptives in community pharmacy.

And community pharmacy’s open-door policy during the COVID-19 pandemic – when other parts of the primary care landscape became notoriously difficult to access – will stand it in good stead among consumers, Ms Maxwell points out.

She advises that consumers worried about safety now that some contraceptive pills like Lovima are available without a prescription can be assured that the medicine’s reclassification followed a “really rigorous process”.

The progesterone-only pill is “a very effective, massively used drug that's been used by millions of women for many, many years”, she says. “Every single word” on all of Lovima’s materials – from packaging to the patient information leaflet and training materials for pharmacists – was vetted by the MHRA, she says.

“What we're trying to do is make it really, really easy and simple for pharmacists to help make this transition from a prescription medicine to an over-the-counter one,” she says.

Ms Maxwell is similarly effusive about the potential for Gina 10mg tablets to become a P medicine.

“It's a really low-dose estrogen that will help women – it gives them choice,” she says. “It means they don't have to go through the anxiety and embarrassment [of going to] the doctor. They can actually go to the pharmacy.”

Whether or not the HRT medicine will successfully see a POM to P switch remains to be seen. But what does seem certain is that community pharmacy has an important role to play in providing women with reassurance about their reproductive health.