This page has moved. Click here to view.
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
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 - -