How effective is birth control | HealthInfi

The absolute majority of mature women use hormonal contraceptives to prevent pregnancy. When planning a pregnancy, many women are wondering «How effective is birth control? ».

Information about safety and effectiveness of birth control medicines can be found in:

• Highlights of Prescribing Information (the US FDA publishes)
• Summary of Product Characteristics (the UK MHRA publish)
• Product Information (the Australian TGA publishes)
• Product Monograph (the Health Canada publishes)

If you want to know, how effective birth control method is but you do not understand medical terms when reading Product Monograph», the key information about effectiveness of popular hormonal contraceptives you can find in this review.

When you take the pill every single day, it’s great at preventing pregnancy. But missing pills, taking certain medications, and other things may make it not work as well.

How effective are birth control pills?

Effectiveness of oral contraceptives depends on their type. At pharmacies, you can find birth control pills containing one or several active ingredients.

One of the largest manufacturers of combined oral contraceptives – Pfizer claims that their effectiveness is equal 99%. This means that while observing the recommended dosing regimen of combined contraceptive, only 1 woman out of 100 may get pregnant.

If the intake of combination birth control pills is periodically skipped or they are not taken at the same time, the chances of becoming pregnant are increased. Reduced efficiency of birth control pills is not only because of missed doses, but also because of menstrual disorders or the use of combined oral contraceptives in conjunction with other medicines.

If the intake of regular dose of combined contraceptive was skipped, use additional non-hormonal methods of birth control to prevent pregnancy.

When used perfectly, the pill is 99% effective. But when it comes to real life, the pill is about 91% effective because it can be hard to be perfect. So in reality, 9 out of 100 pill users get pregnant each year.

The better you are about taking your pill every day and starting your pill packs on time, the better it will work. But there’s a very small chance that you could still get pregnant, even if you always take your pills correctly.

If effectiveness is the most important thing to you when picking what birth control to use, you might want to check out IUDs and the implant. They’re the most effective kinds of birth control.  But if you decide the pill is right for you, make sure you take them on time for the best effectiveness.

If you are looking for an effective combined oral contraceptive, choose birth control pills in which the dose of estrogen hormone is no less than 20 mcg. Read More