For women who use birth control pills but aren't fond of swallowing them, a new chewable form of contraceptive may provide a convenient alternative. A chewable birth control pill was made available Dec. 7 by pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott, said Rochelle Fuhrmann, director of Investor Relations at the company.

The idea behind Femcon Fe -- the name of the pill -- is to provide a means of increasing women's compliance of taking oral contraceptives because of the pill's easy intake, Fuhrmann said.

"For busy women on the go, they can now choose a pill that they can chew or swallow," Fuhrmann said.

Although Femcon Fe is the only chewable oral contraceptive on the market, its ingredients, the hormones estrogen and progesterone, do not differ from those in birth control pills that are swallowed, Fuhrmann said. The medication's 35 micrograms of estrogen allow more cycle control for women who experience breakthrough bleeding between periods, she added.

Fuhrmann said Femcon Fe has the same safety profile as other oral contraceptives, which includes a risk of blood clots and an increased risk of cardiovascular side effects in women who smoke or who are at least 35 years old. Femcon Fe is as equally as effective as its swallowed counterpart, Ovcon 35, she said.

"The chewable birth control pill is another option for women to decide what is right for them," Fuhrmann said.

Dr. Robin Sebastian, resident physician at Altoona Family Physicians, said chewable pills begin to dissolve as soon as they hit saliva and are then partially absorbed through the skin in the mouth. Swallowed pills dissolve in the stomach and are then absorbed into the intestines, she said.

Sebastian said she doesn't think the chewable contraception will prevent women from occasionally forgetting to take their pills. Sebastian added that the use of Femcon Fe might just be a fad.

"I have a lot of people coming in seeking medications just because they're being advertised," Sebastian said. "Realistically, not many of my patients who are on birth control pills have problems swallowing pills."

The University Health Services (UHS) pharmacy in the Ritenour Building does not carry Femcon Fe and will not supply it unless it is in demand, said Joanna Moyer, clinical manager of women's health at UHS.

The majority of women who are prescribed birth control hormones at UHS, Moyer said, are concerned about the costs of the medications. Since Femcon Fe would cost about $20 more per month than traditional oral contraception, most women seeking birth control from UHS would not be willing to pay extra, Moyer said.

"There's a shelf life on any medication, so we can't keep our prices affordable if we lose a lot of money by stocking drugs that go bad on us because of low utilization," Moyer said. "If we find that [Femcon Fe] really takes off, and students really like it and want it, we'll supply it."

Because everyone responds to medications differently, the method of contraception a particular woman uses is dependent on her lifestyle and on the side effects she experiences, Sebastian said.

"A lot of it comes down to the individual woman who wants [the contraception]," Sebastian said. "What does the woman want, what she is willing to take?"