Marmalade. said:
Can someone help me with this - they say that all the pills are the same (Dianne, Estelle, etc) and yet they (a) cost different amounts and (b) are recommended for different problems. But they're similar enough for pharmacists to allow you to buy one when the prescription says another.
Some pills like Diane also have a generic equivalent with a different name e.g. Juliet, Brenda, which are exactly the same thing but cheaper. If your doctor has prescribed a particular Pill the only way I'd imagine a pharmacist would give you a "different" one is if its the generic version, but idk, I've always been insistent on getting exactly what's on the slip.
All pills work as contraceptives regardless of their other functions. Most pills will also have broadly the same general common side effects such as - boobs growing, your skin may improve, bla bla bla, basically all the side effects that are listed in the box would be more or less the same no matter what Pill.
Some pills are prescribed especially for certain things e.g. skin (Diane and I think a couple others)...I'm not sure exactly what the deal is here, AFAIK most Pills have more or less the same ingredients but there are a few different hormone combinations you can get that I assume would do different things. Also there are different strengths/doses of hormones, some are low dosage (levlen etc), others a bit higher (diane) and so on
Hope that helps a bit, it's a bit confusing personally I just tell my doctor what's going on with my body and trust her to fix it, cbf working it out on my own