Emergency contraception is a good choice when you had unprotected sex and do not intend to get pregnant. Sometimes while having sex there could be certain accidents which could make the birth control methods used by you to be ineffective, and in such cases emergency contraception could save the day for you. It is effective up to five days or 120 hours of unprotected sex.
Common causes that would prompt you to use this contraception method.
- The condom broke, tore or slipped.
- You forgot to take your pills or get the patch.
- The diaphragm or cap slipped
- Miscalculation of safe days
- Withdrawal method was not effective
- Forgot to use any birth control
- You were assaulted or forced to have sex
There are different names by which this is known as and these include emergency birth control, morning after pill and backup birth control.
Whatever be the name, it serves a very important purpose of preventing pregnancy when you are not ready for it. So how does it work and is it effective?
The emergency pill has the same hormones as the pill and they thicken the cervical mucus of the woman and this prevents the sperm from going and fertilizing the eggs.
Ovulation is stopped by the hormones and as there is no egg to join the sperm the pregnancy is effectively prevented. There is a common myth that it causes abortion and this is completely untrue.
How soon you start the pill will determine how effective it is and if after having the pill you again have unprotected sex it would not be of use.
There have been no serious complications associated with this pill and some women may experience nausea and vomiting as part of the symptoms and these could clear within a couple of days.
You could also consult the doctor to gain knowledge about the emergency contraception pill available in the market and its dosage.
