Emergency Contraception
Emergency contraception, also known as postcoital contraception, is therapy used to prevent pregnancy after anunprotected or inadequately protected act of sexual intercourse. Women seeking emergency contraception typicallyare younger than 25 years, have never been pregnant, and have used some form of contraception in the past (1–3).Common indications for emergency contraception include contraceptive failure (eg, condom breakage or missed dosesof oral contraceptives) and failure to use any form of contraception (2, 4, 5).
Although oral emergency contraception was first described in the medical literature decades ago, in 1998 theU.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first dedicated product for emergency contraception. Manywomen are unaware of the existence of emergency contraception, misunderstand its use and safety, or do not use itwhen a need arises (6–8). Increasing emergency contraception awareness and knowledge are important priorities inthe effort to prevent unintended pregnancy.
Methods of emergency contraception include administration of progestin-only or combination estrogen–progestinoral contraceptives, synthetic and conjugated estrogens, antiprogestins, or the insertion of a copper intrauterinedevice (IUD). The purpose of this bulletin is to address the progestin-only and combined oral contraceptive methods(which are the most frequently used and the only methods currently approved by the FDA specifically for emergencycontraception) and briefly address the use of the copper IUD because of its use as both long-term contraception andemergency contraception.
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