15-19 Gold

sex once a week or more often, as compared with 56% of the older women.4 In addition, adolescents practicing serial monogamy may use oral contraceptives effectively during a relationship and then discontinue use when it ends; when a new relationship begins, they may be unprepared and use no method.5 Adolescents may also experience more frequent condom breakage or slippage and higher rates of missed pills than older women because of their inexperience with contraceptive use.6 The most common method of emergency contraception used in the United States is the “Yuzpe” method, an oral regimen of 200 mcg of ethinyl estradiol and 1.0 mg of dlnorgestrel. Women take half of the dose within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse and the rest 12 hours later.*7 The Yuzpe method reduces the risk of pregnancy after unprotected intercourse by 75% and could decrease the need for abortion by 50%.8 Other methods also are used for emergency contraception: a copper IUD inserted within 5–7 days of unprotected intercourse, high-dose estrogen, high-dose progestin, danazol and mifepristone.9