How effective is the Oral Contraceptive Pill?

[Jeff]

Oral contraception, oral contraceptive pill

"How effective is the oral contraceptive pill?
If you take the contraceptive pill as instructed, it is over 99% effective. This means that if 100 sexually active women who are otherwise healthy take the pill as instructed for a year, only one of them will fall pregnant"

Whereas
http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/pdf/CG030costing.pdf
Table 7 shows an annual failure rate of 8%

Both are true - it's the "if" in the first one that is perhaps misleading.

Jeff

[Rafael]

why implants(implanon) are not commonly used? especially for teenagers/ uni students?
it would solve the whole problem if they fit implanon, or depo-provera

[Fleegle]

it would solve the whole problem if they fit implanon, or depo-provera

I assume we are talking about a living woman here.

[Rafael]

why implants(implanon) are not commonly used? especially for teenagers/ uni students?
it would solve the whole problem if they fit implanon, or depo-provera

I assume we are talking about a living woman here.

hmmmmm so?
i bet more than 50% of teenage girls/ uni students would prefer implanon if it has been advertised and offered by the GPs, no hassle to take the pill everyday, no problems with forgetting a pill....etc

[lamzee]

Implanon would save a lot of grief for teenagers, especially those of the "binge drinking" demographic, who may not remember to take a pill, or be able to keep it down.

[lrpolo]

Mandatory Implanon for teenage girls? Sounds like you're advocating some kind of big brother type police state.

[DavidS]

Mandatory Implanon for teenage girls? Sounds like you're advocating some kind of big brother type police state.

"Big Sister" sounds better, under the circumstances. A lady phoned me the other day asking if she could buy three or four levonelle tabs, as she was going on holiday. She sounded upset when she learnt that only the first one could be relied on to work. I got the distinct impression that she didn't want to go to her GP and ask for a coil or implant. If I had to guess, I would have said that it was possibly because they both came from the same minority ethnic group.

[the old merlin]

When I worked with a Learning Disability unit contraception could be a big issue. Depo-provera (medroxyprogesterone) was usually the method of choice, although one or two clients used OC's.
Trouble was, sometimes the girls could be persuaded to put themselves at risk without any, or only very limited, understanding of the consequences. Responsible staff tried their best to protect them, but "accidents" did happen!

[lamzee]

The thing with girls also is that if they ditch the boyfriend, they are inclined to pop the pills down the toilet thinking they don't need the any more. Then boyfriend comes back and 9 months later they are pushing a pram! At least if the rod is stuck in their arm they can't be so impetuous!

Also, the pill doesn't lend itself to the binge drinking generation, where they may be too sick/hung over to take it or may be staying "at a friend's" and have left the pills at home. Again, you can't forget/puke up a rod, or leave it at home.

[imaginegenerous]

Thinking of Implanon maybe possible side effects put some girls off? Irregular bleeding's a possibility and apparently in some cases that doesn't settle down for a year or so if at all.

Just a thought