Pill you take just before sex could replace daily contraceptive

AN ‘on-demand’ contraceptive Pill taken just before sex has been hailed as an ‘innovation women have been waiting for’.

It is highly effective at disrupting ovulation, even at the point in the cycle when the risk of pregnancy is greatest, trials reveal.

Campaigners hailed the breakthrough as a ‘game-changer’ which could replace the need to take a daily Pill or rely on a long-acting method, such as the coil.

US scientists examined the impact of combining two existing drugs in ten healthy women aged 18 to 35. The first is ulipristal acetate, which is currently used as an emergency contraception, and the second is meloxicam, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory.

Each woman was monitored through two menstrual cycles – a

‘A promising candidate’

baseline cycle, to identify normal ovulatory patterns and a treatment cycle, when participants were given 30g of each drug around the time of the ‘luteal surge’.

This is the term for the days just before ovulation, when it is hardest to disrupt the release of an egg.

Eight out of nine women included in the final analysis met some criteria for incomplete ovulation.

Writing in the journal BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, researchers at Stanford University, California, say the results identify ‘a promising candidate for evaluation.’

Clare Murphy, of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, said: ‘We could not welcome this development more. This potential method of contraception, which women can use as and when needed, is an innovation women have been waiting for. It could free them from having to use a daily or long-acting method which they neither want nor require. It could be a game-changer.’ The paper says further studies in larger numbers of women are needed.