Emergency contraception
Emergency contraceptives are methods to prevent pregnancy after unprotected intercourse. You should always remember that they cannot be used regularly and are extraodinary measures for pregnancy prevention.
Emergency measures can be taken in such cases as condoms deterioration, rape or failure if you choose coitus interruptus.
There are two types of pregnancy prevention after intercourse:
• Hormonal pills
• Intrauterine contraceptives
Hormonal pills
Usual combined birth control pills can be used as a method of emergency contraception. Pay attention to the table given below. This is a chart containing the dosage information for some brands of birth control pills. As you can see, they are of different colour. It is significant to take the exact colour. Choose only one type of pill to take for EC.
| Regular Birth Control Pills | 1st Dose-Take within 72 hours of intercourse | 2nd Dose-Take within 12 hours after the 1st dose |
| Alesse | 5 pink pills | 5 pink pills |
| Levlen | 4 orange pills | 4 orange pills |
| Levlite | 5 pink pills | 5 pink pills |
| Levora | 4 white pills | 4 white pills |
| Lo-Ovral | 4 white pills | 4 white pills |
| Nordette | 4 orange pills | 4 orange pills |
| Ovral | 2 white pills | 2 white pills |
| Tri-Levlen | 4 yellow pills | 4 yellow pills |
| Trivora | 4 pink pills | 4 pink pills |
| Triphasil | 4 yellow pills | 4 yellow pills |
There are pills specially designed for emergency contraception. The most popular among them is Postinor. Its contraceptive effectiveness is 2 pregnancies per 100 women a year. First pill should be taken imediately after the intercourse. If you had several intercourses you should take one more pill after 8 hours. Remember that you can take not more than 4 pills a month.
Hormonal pills used as emergency contraceptives can provoke some side effects, such as bleeding, vomiting. Very rarely period does not come within 3 weeks after pill taking. It can be a side effect as well as a sign of pregnancy.
Intrauterine contraceptives
Intrauterine emergency contraception consists in intrauterine loops insertion within 5-7 days after unprotected intercourse. This method is more effective than the hormonal one. However, some individual factors such as contraindications should be taken into consideration.Emergency insertion of intrauterine contraceptives is not recommended for young women who do not have children, and for women who have many sex partners.
No doubt, you understand that it is better to prevent a problem, rather than to solve it. That is why we remind you that emergency contraception is an extraodinary measure that must be taken only when there is no other way out. And remember that side effects caused by emergency contraceptives are much less harmful than abortion.