Family Planning Alliance Australia, 2019
How effective is each contraceptive method? This revised chart compares methods of contraception for their efficacy.
The figures have been derived by expert consensus using results from a variety of studies, selecting figures from studies which appear to be most comparable to Australian conditions.
SHINE SA, November 2018
Clinicians: SHINE SA is pleased to present the following Clinical Forum by Dr Amy Moten on the topic of Contraception.
This recording is available free of charge, and access is limited to three months only.
This forum covers emergency contraception and new formulations of the Pill.
3 Category 2 RACGP Points can be awarded on completion of the forum.
Recording length: 1 hour 18 minutes
Alcohol and Drug Foundation, February 21, 2018
Men generally consume harmful substances at higher rates than women – this is true both within Australia and internationally. But while the research points to the prevalence of substance misuse disorders among women in Australia as being around half that of men, they are more likely to be socially criticised as a result of their use/misuse.
This criticism stems from the continuation of traditional gender-based roles assigned to women within our society, which in turn generates and perpetuates social and institutional stigma. One of the end results of this is a reduction in women seeking out treatment services for alcohol and other drug-related (AOD) issues. Which, in turn, has reduced the opportunity for research into many of the gender-specific factors that drive women’s AOD misuse, as well as reducing the quality and efficacy of AOD treatment services for them.
nam/aidsmap, 06 February 2018
HIV-positive women in Switzerland are mainly relying on male condoms for contraception, investigators report in HIV Medicine. “Male condoms remained the most frequently used contraceptive method, whereas the use of long-acting reversible contraceptives was very uncommon,” note the researchers. “One in six women using contraceptives experienced an unwanted pregnancy, with 42% occurring while using a combined hormonal pill.”
The investigators suggest that HIV clinicians need to do more to encourage effective contraceptive use by women with HIV, especially in the light of growing awareness that people with HIV with undetectable viral load do not transmit HIV. If couples stop using the male condom, women need information about which contraceptive options are suitable for them.
SHINE SA, Issued: 13 December 2017
SHINE SA believes that decisions about contraception should be made in conjunction with a health care professional and that everyone should have access to accurate and unbiased information to enable appropriate informed contraceptive choice.
LARCs (Long Acting Reversible Contraception) including the levonorgestrel IUD1 (Mirena) and the subdermal implant (Implanon NXT) are the most effective reversible methods of contraception available. They have the additional advantage of being long lasting, convenient to use and generally well regarded by most users. LARC method failure rates rival that of tubal sterilization at <1% and unintended pregnancy rates are lower than those reported for contraceptive pill users.
Like all progestogen only contraceptive methods, LARCs may result in a change of bleeding pattern which may include no bleeding, frequent or prolonged bleeding. Users of the levonorgestrel IUD most commonly experience a reduction in bleeding over time and it is used as a treatment for Heavy Menstrual Bleeding for this reason. Only 1 in 5 users of the contraceptive implant have an increase in bleeding that persists beyond the first few months.
LARC use, and in particular the subdermal implant, is not known to be associated with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) which is an infection of the upper part of the female reproductive system namely the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries. PID is a known side effect of IUD insertion but occurs in less than 1 in 300 people. The risk of PID is only increased for the first 3 weeks after insertion, after which it returns to the previous background risk. Users of IUDs are encourage to return at any sign of infection and when treated promptly with antibiotics are unlikely to experience any long term complications.
Rewire, Oct 10, 2017
New research shows that you can buy effective abortion pills online. This is a groundbreaking finding given that cost, travel, and onerous abortion restrictions often make in-clinic, first-trimester abortions inaccessible.
In the study, published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Contraception, researchers ordered abortion pills from 20 websites, none of which required a prescription. Once the pills arrived in their homes, researchers sent the pills to a lab in good standing with the FDA to test the pills’ chemical contents.
The lab confirmed that all of the mifepristone, one of the two drugs used during a medication abortion, was within 8 percent of the advertised—and World Health Organization-approved—effective amount. The other drug, misoprostol, varied more considerably in how much of it was present in the pills the researchers received. Despite this variation, the researchers determined that the misoprostol pills would still be effective in causing an abortion.