Emergency contraception is an underused therapeutic option for women in the event of unprotected sexual intercourse. Available postcoital contraceptives include emergency contraceptive pills (ECPs) both with and without estrogen, and copper-bearing intrauterine devices. Each method has its individual efficacy, safety, and side effect profile. Most patients will experience prevention of pregnanc...

BACKGROUND Awareness of emergency contraceptive pills (ECP) associated with an intention to use other contraceptive methods has rarely been investigated. This study compared the ECP awareness of males and females and its associations with intention to use four other contraceptive methods (condoms, oral contraceptive pills, and withdrawal and rhythm methods) in unmarried university students in K...

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...

nancies in the United States are unintended: there were 3.2 million in 1994 alone, the last year for which data are available.1 Emergency contraception, which prevents pregnancy after unprotected sexual intercourse, has the potential to reduce significantly the incidence of unintended pregnancy and the consequent need for abortion.2 For the 3.1 million women at risk of pregnancy but not using a...

BACKGROUND Unwanted pregnancy followed by unsafe abortion is one of the major worldwide health problems, which has many negative consequences on the health and well-being of women. Information about women's knowledge, attitude and practice of emergency contraceptives plays a major role in the reduction of unwanted pregnancy; however, there are no studies about this issue in the study area. This...

Timely access to emergency contraception (EC) can contribute to reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies, and ultimately, the number of unsafe abortions and maternal fatalities. In Latin America, where all countries are parties to international human rights treaties that recognize the rights to autonomy, privacy, and health, and recognize sexual and reproductive rights including the right to...

BACKGROUND Health service providers can restrict access to contraceptives through their own imposed biases about method appropriateness. In this study, provider biases toward contraceptive service provision among urban Nigerian providers was assessed. METHODS Health providers working in health facilities, as well as pharmacists and patent medical vendors (PMV), in Abuja, Benin City, Ibadan, I...

OBJECTIVE Poland has a restrictive abortion law. Emergency contraception (EC) is expensive and available only on prescription, which is not easily obtainable in public health care. We aimed to identify the main reasons for EC requests, observed failure rates and the type and incidence of adverse effects. DESIGN Prospective single-center observational study. POPULATION A cohort of women livi...

HEALTH ISSUE: Contraception choices affect the long-term sexual health and fertility of women and men. Data from the 1998 Canadian Contraception Study and the 2000/2001 Canadian Community Health Survey were assessed for measures of contraceptive use and familiarity with various methods among Canadian women. KEY FINDINGS: The oral contraceptive (OC) pill is the dominant method of contraception f...

BACKGROUND Although it is well known that post-abortion contraceptive use is high when family planning services are provided following spontaneous or induced abortions, this relationship remains unclear in Brazil and similar settings with restrictive abortion laws. Our study aims to assess whether contraceptive use is associated with access to family planning services in the six-month period po...