Before you prescribe that medicine

This is definitely not the first time I am writing about errors that could happen from the prescriber right to the dispenser. This point always needs emphasis. Recently I was seated in a pharmacy and the patient came in and asked for ‘Gesti..’; that’s what they said. Now depending on one’s audio acuity, what you hear might be different. I in this case heard Gestin.
Truth be told; I was a little confused. The man said ‘Gesti..’ had been prescribed by his doctor back in his country and he wanted the syrup not the tablets.

The confusion was because Gestin often comes as a 5mg tablet. It contains a female hormone called Allylestrenol, which is progesterone. It is used to treat intrauterine growth retardation (poor growth of foetus while in the mother’s womb during pregnancy), threatened abortion, habitual abortion and threatened premature delivery. It is said to stimulate the placenta into synthesising its own progesterone and hence averting the risk of abortion. So I wasn’t sure why this man wanted it. And no, he did not have a pregnant wife at home; the medicine was his. On further inquisition about why the doctor recommended the above, the man described his symptoms and it turned out, he wanted Gestid.

Gestid tablets contain aluminium and magnesium hydroxide, magnesium triscillicate and simethicone. It is recommended for the management or relief of heartburn and peptic ulcer disease. It is also given for relief of flatulence, and acid reflux.
The difference in spelling is simply the last letter and yet the differences in everything else are quite significant. So it is very important to know what your diagnosis is as one leaves the doctor’s office.

Or better still to remember what one’s symptoms were when one visited the doctor and got the prescription that they got. This promotes safety when it comes to medicine, God forbid the man had been given female hormones to treat his ulcers.
It is not wrong to ask the doctor what exactly the spelling of the medicine is. Take a picture of it and save it in your phone’s gallery just incase you lose the prescription. Safety first.

The writer is a pharmacist