Contraceptive advice may confuse
New guidance on the advice that health professionals should give to women who have missed some of their oral contraceptive pills may be confusing, claim the authors of a comment published in The
Lancet this week.
The new guidance (PDF 75K), issued by the UK Faculty of Family Planning
and Reproductive Health Care last month, recommends additional methods
of
contraception
if a woman misses three or more pills containing
30–35µg ethinylestradiol or two or more pills containing
20µg or less. It says that emergency contraception may be required
if these pills are missed in the first week of the pack, effectively
extending the pill-free interval.
Some health professionals have expressed concern about these new recommendations,
say the authors, and point out that women may be unsure if their pills
contain oestrogen or how much ethinylestradiol they contain.
They also say that the guidelines do not define how many hours late a
pill must be to be classed as “missed”. They suggest that
one rule for all doses of pill would be less confusing, with more information
provided to women about the risk of extending the pill-free
interval.
Toni Belfield, director of information at the Family Planning Association,
said: “Our helpline work shows that most women do know what kind
of pill they are on, but they may not know the name correctly as often
it is not easy to say. Clearly, where information is now relating to
women using 20µg ethinylestradiol pills versus 30µg ethinylestradiol
pills this demands better communication and information from professionals
providing any contraception service.” |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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