We write to report the fi ndings of a questionnaire study within a large family planning centre in the UK that examined women’s knowledge and understanding of the current missed pills rules. Three different sets of missed pill rules have been available to the 3.5 million combined oral contraception (COC) users in the UK. The guidance from the World Health Organization and the Faculty of Sexual ...

CONTEXT In Africa, many new family planning clients are not menstruating at the time they present for services. Where pregnancy tests are unavailable, clients are often denied their method of choice and sent home to await menses. For pill clients, one obvious solution is 'advance provision' of oral contraceptives for later use. However, this practice is rare in Africa. OBJECTIVE To assess the...

The epidemiological studies that assessed the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) associated with newer oral contraceptives (OC) did not distinguish between patterns of OC use, namely first-time users, repeaters and switchers. Data from a Transnational case-control study were used to assess the risk of VTE for the latter patterns of use, while accounting for duration of use. Over the period 19...

UNLABELLED Adolescents and young women are at the greatest risk of unintended pregnancy because they are unlikely to see a family planning provider before or immediately after the sexual activity. Therefore, preventing unintended pregnancy among them is the important concern. Sexually active young women are clients with special needs for contraception. They are eligible to use a variety of the ...

Modifiable lifestyle factors, such as obesity, lack of physical activity, and smoking, contribute greatly to cancer and chronic disease morbidity and mortality worldwide. This review appraises recent evidence on modifiable lifestyle factors in the prevention of endometrial cancer (EC) and ovarian cancer (OC) as well as new evidence for lifestyle management of EC and OC survivors. For EC, obesit...

Emergency contraception can be used by women after sexual intercourse in an effort to prevent an unintended pregnancy. Roughly one-half of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended (1,2). The FDA first approved emergency contraceptive pills in 1998, but there is evidence of limited use of hormonal contraceptives for emergency contraception since the 1960s (3,4). Now, there are at leas...

OBJECTIVE To estimate differences in continuation of oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) between U.S. resident women obtaining pills in U.S. family planning clinics compared with over-the-counter in Mexican pharmacies. METHODS In El Paso, Texas, we recruited 514 OCP users who obtained pills over the counter from a Mexican pharmacy and 532 who obtained OCPs by prescription from a family planning c...

CONTEXT In South Africa, emergency contraceptive pills are available directly from pharmacies without a prescription, yet few studies have assessed pharmacists' knowledge of and attitudes toward the medication. METHODS In-person interviews were conducted with 34 pharmacists practicing in Soweto and the Johannesburg Central Business District, from February through April 2003. The pharmacists p...