What is Emergency Contraception?
EC is a safe and effective means of preventing pregnancy after intercourse. It has been available for more than 30 years, and is believed to be responsible for 43 percent of the decrease in abortions from 1994 to 2000. EC is made up of the hormones found in birth control pills and is taken one to five days after intercourse.
For women who have experienced either a failure in birth control or unwanted intercourse, emergency contraception provides an important alternative to abortion. If emergency contraception was more widely available, it is estimated that 1.7 million unintended pregnancies and 800,000 abortions could be prevented each year in America.
Where can I get emergency contraception?
You can get emergency contraception from your health care provider, public health clinic, Planned Parenthood, Native clinic, university or military health service, or even your neighborhood pharmacy.
At pharmacies, you do not need a prescription if you are 18 or over and have identification.
In addition, women of all ages can get EC from certain Alaskan pharmacies without a prescription.
If you are sexually active, ask your doctor for EC to keep in your medicine chest in case of an emergency.
A confidential hotline maintains a list of providers of emergency contraception across the country. A recorded message gives names, addresses and phone numbers of five nearby providers based on the number you call from. The toll-free number is 1-888-NOT-2-LATE (1-888-668-2-5283 – yes, there is an extra digit!). The web address is http://www.not-2-late.com.
Planned Parenthood offers prescriptions by phone (1-800-230-PLAN/7526) to women under 18.
Why is emergency contraception needed?
No birth control is 100 percent effective. Condoms break or slip off. Women sometimes forget to take birth control pills or to insert a diaphragm. Some women, for various reasons, do not use birth control while sexually active. Some are raped.
Can I keep from getting pregnant after I’ve had unprotected intercourse?
Yes. Emergency contraception is taken after unprotected intercourse. It can be taken up to five days (120 hours) after intercourse, but is most effective if taken within 12 hours. It can delay ovulation (the release of the mature egg from an ovary) or prevent fertilization (the joining of egg and sperm). EC pills have no proven effect on preventing implantation (post-fertilization implantation in the uterine wall).
What kinds of emergency contraception are there?
The most common form of emergency contraception is known as Plan B®. It contains progestin only, and is therefore safe for women who cannot take estrogen. It can reduce the risk of pregnancy by 89 percent.
Your health care provider may also prescribe high doses of regular birth control pills that contain both progestin and estrogen. These reduce the risk of pregnancy by 75 percent and are more likely to cause nausea as a side effect.
A third method is the Copper-T Intrauterine Device (IUD). It can be inserted within five days of unprotected sex and can be left in place up to 10 years as a regular birth-control method. It reduces the risk of pregnancy by 99 percent.
Is emergency contraception safe?
Yes. If you are already pregnant, emergency contraception will not harm the fetus, nor will it endanger the pregnancy. It prevents pregnancy; it does not end it. Emergency contraception is not to be confused with RU 486 (mifepristone), also known as “the abortion pill,” which induces a medical abortion after pregnancy has been established. Babies born to women who continue taking birth control pills before finding out that they are pregnant do not have higher rates of birth defects.
Doctors have long prescribed high doses of birth-control pills to rape victims and other women to prevent pregnancy. In 1998, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first pills packaged specifically for this purpose (Preven is no longer prescribed). In 1999, the FDA approved Plan B®, which causes fewer side effects. In August 2006, the FDA approved Plan B® for sale at pharmacies without a prescription.
However, emergency contraception is not 100 percent effective. If you don’t get your period, or experience symptoms of pregnancy after taking Plan B, contact your health care provider.
And remember, emergency contraception does not provide protection against sexually transmitted disease. Nor is it as effective against pregnancy as conventional birth control used on a continuous basis. If you plan to have intercourse after taking an emergency contraceptive, you must still use birth control.
