BACKGROUND With the recent US Food and Drug Administration approval of a combination oral contraceptive that causes a withdrawal bleed every 3 months instead of monthly, avoidance of menstruation through extended or continuous administration (>28 days of active pills) of combined oral contraceptives may become more commonplace for reasons of personal preference rather than limited to treatment ...

The study of a post-coital contraceptive pill containing 0.75 mg levonorgestrel was undertaken at National Research Institute of Fertility Control (NRIFC) to assess its efficacy, side effects and acceptability. Ninety five women were studied for 340 months of use. Average age and parity of acceptors was 29.4 and 3.8 respectively. Menstrual cycle irregularity was the most prominent sideeffect re...

Yale School of Medicine produced the first proof-of-concept study on the viability of a "morning-after" pill for human use. This study was a result of a fruitful collaboration between a pair of Yale scientists, Drs. John M. Morris and Gertrude van Wagenen, who sought a non-abortion, post-coital contraceptive. They tested a variety of hormones, hormone-based synthetic drugs, and other compounds ...

Engaging in risky sexual behaviors puts a woman at increased risk of acquiring unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. Barrier contraceptives protect against both. Field workers interviewed 1,070 such 'at-risk' women aged 18-35 years who had at least three coital acts per week and at least two sex partners in the previous three months to establish the prevalence of contracep...

Using data from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey 1998, this paper analyzed the duration of use of a contraceptive method and the reasons for its non-use given by former users of contraception. The results showed that the duration of use tended to be short, particularly so for the use of condom and withdrawal. Injectable contraceptives and periodic abstinence tended to be used for relativ...

Most combination oral contraceptives contain ethinyl estradiol and a progestin. A new and novel oral contraceptive formulation combines estradiol valerate (E2V) with dienogest (DNG) in a four-phase dosing regimen. 17β-estradiol is a naturally-occurring estrogen, and a contraceptive pill containing such an estrogen offers potential benefits with regard to metabolic side effects and adverse event...

Marketing decisions, rather than scientific innovations, have guided the development and positioning of contraceptive products in recent years. I review the stalled progress in contraceptive development in the decades following the advent of the Pill in 1960 and then examine the fine-tuning of the market for oral contraceptives in the 1990s and 2000s. Although birth control has been pitched in ...

It has been shown that the gestagen component of oral contraceptives changes the composition of the cervical mucus so as to make sperm penetration difficult. Endometrial changes and changes in the normal patterns of tubal and uterine motility have been described. Ovulation is inhibited by inhibition of ovarian response to gonadotrophins or by inhibition of the formation and/or release of endo...

BACKGROUND Long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC) have become more commonly promoted in the UK, but most young women still rely on the contraceptive pill. Here, we describe young women's accounts of hormonal contraceptive use to explore why this might be the case. METHODS In-depth interviews with twenty 20-year-old women from eastern Scotland in the UK. RESULTS All but one woman repor...

In December 2012, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) released a Committee Opinion supporting over-the-counter (OTC) access to oral contraceptive pills (1). A growing body of evidence indicates that OTC provision of oral contraceptives is safe and effective and that women are interested in obtaining pills this way. With half of all U.S. pregnancies being unintended—a ...