Types of Emergency Contraception

Can I use any birth control pills
for emergency contraception?

To have the best chance of preventing pregnancy
in the few days after sex, you
should use one of the oral contraceptives listed on this website as
emergency contraception.
Here you will find all the birth control pill brands available in
the United States and worldwide
that contain the hormones that have been most widely studied and found
safe and effective
as emergency contraceptive
pills (“morning after
pills” or “day after pills”).

Two types of birth control pills have been well researched in clinical
trials for their use as emergency
contraception. The first contains levonorgestrel, a form of the
female hormone progesterone; they are often called “progestin-only”
or “mini” pills. The second contains levonorgestrel
and ethinyl estradiol, a form of the female hormone estrogen; they
are often referred to as “combined”
pills.

Can I use Ortho Tri-Cyclen for
EC?

There are a number of other oral contraceptives on the market which
contain formulations of female hormones that have not been studied
for use in preventing
pregnancy after sex. These include Ortho Tri-Cyclen, one of
the most commonly prescribed combined birth control pills in the
United States. If you have a prescription for Ortho Tri-Cyclen or
any other oral contraceptive not listed in our database
of pills, you should contact a health care provider if you think
you might need emergency contraception.

One clinical trial has found that a combined pill containing the
same type of estrogen as Ortho Tri-Cyclen, ethinyl estradiol, but
a different progestin, norethindrone (or norethisterone), could
be used as emergency contraception.
However, because this combined pill does not appear to be as effective
as combined emergency
contraceptive pills with the estrogen ethinyl estradiol and
the progestin levonorgestrel, we do not recommend that you use these
pills for emergency contraception
unless they are the only pills available. (Because of the limited
research and lower effectiveness, you will not find any pills containing
this formulation listed in our database
of emergency contraceptive
pills ("morning
after pills" or "day after pills").

For a thorough and up-to-date academic review of the research about
pills used for emergency contraception, click
here.