Getting birth control pills in Japan

Hi there!

I just moved to Japan. I am currently taking Yasmin birth control pills and wanted to know how I can go about getting more here once I have run out.

Do I need to see a doctor first to get a perscription?

Do they just sell them in just any pharmacy (I mean birth control pills in general)?

Not as important, but any idea how much they cost for a month package?

Thanks! Any help would be awesome!

From what I can look up, Yasmin contains 0.03mg EE (Ethinyl Estradiol) and 3mg Drospirenone. Yasmin itself is not available in Japan. The pill that has a *similar* formulation (so-called "third generation") and is available in Japan is Marvelon. Marvelon contains 0.03g EE and 0.15mg desogestrel.

In Japan you need to go to a doctor to get birth control pills in general. They are not available at pharmacies.

The first time you go, you get a blood pressure and other initial check-up, and annually you have to take a cervical cancer test to continue getting the prescription. One sheet (one month) costs between 2,000 - 3,000 yen; it is not covered by insurance here.

If you have been taking Yasmin already for some time, are confident about using it, and do not want to change to a different one, one option you have is to use import agencies to import yourself or ask family to send some over (provided you get the necessary check-up somewhere, maybe when you go visit your home country once a year or so).

I don't take Yasmin, but another type of pill not available in Japan. After trying a few others that didn't work out for me, I've resulted to importing my own from an international pharmacy website recommended by my physician. Perhaps you can ask your current doctor if there is a website he or she is comfortable recommending that you could use. On this particular website, the pills cost about $50/packet (including shipping) and do not require a prescription to be shipped to Japan. If you're only coming for a short time, less than a year, I bet your doctor will either give you clinical samples to bring along to get started or even enough for the whole time.