KATHMANDU, NEPAL – Limbu, a 17-year-old student at British Gurkha College, began experiencing heavy vaginal bleeding just as classes began one morning in April.

She rushed to a pharmacy near her school in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, with her friend Gurung, 18.

The young women declined to publish their first names to avoid stigma for speaking openly about their sexual activities.

The pharmacist told Limbu he was unable to help her and advised her to go to the nearby Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, she says.

There, Limbu was treated for dehydration, given a blood transfusion to replace lost blood, and kept under observation for several hours, she says. The doctor told her the bleeding was most likely caused by her excessive use of the emergency contraception pill. Diagnosing her as