How much do emergency contraceptive pills cost?
The cost of emergency contraceptive pills will depend on where you get them. Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics often use a sliding scale to determine how much to charge. Without a sliding scale, the average cost for the pills is $20-$25, and the average cost of a visit is $30-35. However, there is considerable variation and you should always ask what the costs will be before you go to a health care provider. One way to reduce costs would be to request ECPs in advance, when visiting a provider for another reason. This would eliminate the cost of the visit, and would also allow you to start the regimen immediately if the need arises. In addition, some clinics, including some Planned Parenthood clinics, will phone in a prescription for ECPs, eliminating office visit costs.

How effective is emergency contraception?
On average, if 100 women have unprotected intercourse once during the second or third week of their cycle, 8 will become pregnant. Following treatment with combined ECPs, 2 will become pregnant (a 75% reduction in the risk of pregnancy); Following treatment with progestin-only ECPs, 1 will become pregnant (a 89% reduction in the risk of pregnancy); Following emergency insertion of a copper IUD, the risk of pregnancy is reduced by more than 99%.

If a woman uses only emergency contraception for a year, and uses ECPs perfectly after every act of unprotected sex, then her annual risk of pregnancy would be about 38% with Preven and 19% with Plan B. ECPs when used perfectly are not as effective as other methods of ongoing contraception when used perfectly.

Why is Emergency Contraception the Nation's Best-Kept Secret?
Most women and many clinicians in the United States do not know about emergency contraception. The primary reason is that not until recently has any pharmaceutical company marketed or even advertised about emergency contraception. The small health company GynŽtics does market a dedicated combined emergency contraceptive product, Preven, specifically packaged and labeled for emergency contraception. But it launched the product only in mid-1998 and it does not have a big marketing budget. In July, 1999, Women's Capital Corporation launched a dedicated progestin-only emergency contraceptive product, Plan B.

Both the contraceptives approved by the FDA for emergency contraception and those used for ordinary birth control can legally be used for emergency contraception. Any clinician authorized to provide prescriptions may prescribe an approved drug for an unlabeled purpose; the most common example is prescribing oral contraceptives to regulate menstrual periods, or to reduce menstrual cramps. The FDA has explicitly declared ECPs to be safe and effective. If widely used, emergency contraceptives could substantially reduce unintended pregnancy and the need for induced abortion.

Half of all women will have at least one unintended pregnancy in their life Ð emergency contraception could cut this figure in half. Only 2 percent of women in this country have used EC and only 11 percent are aware of its existence. The time has come for women to have access to a product that they need. Almost half of the 6.3 million annual pregnancies in the US are unintended. Emergency contraception holds the potential to cut this figure in half. This could substantially reduce the US abortion rate of about 1 in every 4 pregnancies.

How to Use EC

ECs are taken in two doses, 12 hours apart. They work best when the first dose is taken within 72 hours of unprotected vaginal intercourse. Some are designed specifically for emergency contraception -Plan B (progestin-only) and Preven (estrogen and progestin). Certain other birth control pills can be used for EC. Several brands have been shown to be effective. The number of pills in a dose depends on the brand. Use the same brand for both doses.

 

Pill Brand	Manufacturer	1st Dose	2nd Dose (12 hours later)
Alesse	Wyeth-Ayerst	5 pink pills	5 pink pills
Levlen	Berlex	4 light orange pills	4 light orange pills
Levlite	Berlex	5 pink pills	5 pink pills
Levora	Watson	4 white pills	4 white pills
Lo/Ovral	Wyeth-Ayerst	4 white pills	4 white pills
LowOgestrel	Watson	4 white pills	4 white pills
Nordette	Wyeth-Ayerst	4 light orange pills	4 light orange pills
Ogestrel	Watson	2 white pills	2 white pills
Ovral	Wyeth-Ayerst	2 white pills	2 white pills
Ovrette	Wyeth-Ayerst	20 yellow pills	20 yellow pills
Plan B	Woman's Capital	1 white pill	1 white pill
Levlite	Berlex Corporation	5 pink pills	5 pink pills
Preven	Gynetics	2 blue pills	2 blue pills
Tri-Levlen	Berlex	4 yellow pills	4 yellow pills
Triphasil	Wyeth-Ayerst	4 yellow pills	4 yellow pills
Trivora	Watson	4 pink pills	4 pink pills

With a regular 28-pill birth control pack, use any of the first 21 pills for emergency contraception. Don't use the last seven pills in a 28-day pack. They are only reminder pills that contain no hormones. With Triphasil or Tri-Levlen, use only the yellow ones. With Trivora, use only the pink ones.

FIRST DOSE: Swallow the pills in the first dose within 72 hours - three days - after having unprotected sex. If you are not using progestin-only pills, you may want to eat saltines or soda crackers or drink a glass of milk 30 minutes before taking each dose to avoid vomiting. You can buy medication to reduce nausea, such as Dramamine or Bonamine.

SECOND DOSE: Swallow the second dose 12 hours after taking the first dose. If you threw up after the first dose, be sure to use an anti-nausea medication 30 minutes before taking the second one. Or you may want to take the second dose as a vaginal suppository by inserting the pills with your fingers as high into the vagina as you can reach. (The medication will be absorbed through the vaginal tissue.)
If you vomit the second dose, do not take any extra pills. They probably won't reduce the risk of pregnancy. But they will probably make you sick to your stomach.

After You Take the Pills

Side Effects

Resources:

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/ec/
put in your zip code and find a clinic nearest you!

Plan B
http://www.go2planb.com

PREVENª emergency contraceptive kit
http://www.gynetics.com/welcome.html
http://www.Not-2-late.com
This site includes information about emergency contraception and a directory of health centers that offer this service.