This page has moved. Click here to view.

 

Fertility Control

Although 90% of women who are at risk for pregnancy use some form of birth control, 56.5% of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended. At a minimum, an unintended pregnancy represents a missed opportunity to achieve the benefits of preconceptional care, oral contraceptives, birth control, RU486, IUD, ParaGard, Copper T, levonorgestrel implant, depot-provera cervical cap, diaphragm, mifepristone, progestasert, female condom, intrauterine device, Progestasert, ParaGard, Norplant. Ironically, women with serious medical problems who are most in need of preconcep-tional care traditionally

Over a 5-year period, the cost to the medical system of providing reproductive health care services to sexually active patients who do not use was estimated in 1995 to total $14,000 per woman in a managed care environment. Providing significantly reduces those health care costs. Methods that may appear to be more expensive initially--such as implants, IUD, and injections-actually save the health care system the most money by virtue of their extraordinary effectiveness (Table 6).

TABLE 6. Failure Rates During the First Year of Use, United States, and Cost Savings for Methods

Based on 5-Year Data

Percentage of Women with Pregnancy

Method Lowest Expected Typical Estimated 5-Year Net Savings ($)*

No method 85.0 85.0 Not applicable

Combination pill 0.1 3.0 12,789

Progestin-only pill 0.5 3.0-6.0 -

Progesterone 2.0 < 2.0 12,621

ParaGard Copper T380A 0.7 < 0.7 14,122

Levonorgestrel implant 0.09 0.09 13,813

Female sterilization 0.2 0.4 12,079

Male sterilization 0.1 O.15 13,899

Depot medroxyprogesterone

acetate 0.3 0.3 13,373

Spermicides 3.0 21.0 10,561

Periodic abstinence - 20.0 11,213

Calendar 9.0 - -

Ovulation method 3.0 - -

Symptothermal 2.0 - -