Health risk warning as Pill goes on sale online

Medical website DrThom launched its online service aimed at busy working women, which cuts out the need for them to visit a doctor for the Pill.

Previously the contraceptive was only available on prescription from GPs and health clinics.

But the move sparked fears underage girls too nervous to visit their doctor will use the service, while doctors warned the website could not carry out the same health checks as a GP.

The officially sanctioned website will today start selling three months' supply of the pill to women who already use it, but there are plans to expand it to those who have never taken it before.

Patients will have to fill in a health questionnaire online and provide specific details of their blood pressure reading, as well as their weight and family history of cancer.

But a spokesman for the website admitted the online service was unable to "verify anything independently".

He added: "A woman has to say how old she is and as part of the registration will have to supply her date of birth, but there's nothing to stop somebody who's, say, 17 lying about their age."

GP Trevor Stammers said: "I am sure it will only be a matter of time before someone has a thrombosis or embolism as a result of using that service. The contraceptive pill is not a Smartie. You need to be monitored when you are on it."

John Smeaton, of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, argued that widespread availability of contraception gave young people an incentive to become sexually active.

Website founder Dr Thomas Van Every, a sexual health expert at Chelsea and Westminster hospital, said: "The aim of our new contraceptive service is to make it easier and more convenient for women throughout the UK to get access to the Pill.

"Our specialist service is ideal for a woman living a long way from her GP or a woman who is too busy because of work or childcare to take the time to visit her GP. We see the DrThom service as part of an ongoing trend - a trend consistent with UK Government policy - to help women access contraceptive services as close to their home as possible."

Women taking the most commonly prescribed combined Pill, containing oestrogens and progestogens, have a small risk of blood clots, also called thromboembolism.

Smoking increases the risk of blood clots as does diabetes, high blood pressure and a family history of clots.

Dr Thom is regulated and inspected by the Healthcare Commission, the UK's health watchdog. It can prescribe all combined and mini-pills commonly used in the UK.