Puzzling Over the Hurt Down-Under
Serious Mental Illness and Contraception
New 13-Cycle Vaginal Contraceptive System
The Future of Family Planning in Post-COVID America
New ASCCP Guidelines: Implications for FP
On the alert: mood disorders during 2020 stressors
Challenges old and new during the pandemic
Reproductive health in the time of Covid-19
Missed Pills: The Problem That Hasn’t Gone Away
Find the “yes! . . . and” rather than “no” or “but”
Digital Family Planning: the Future is Now
Irregular Bleeding Due to Contraceptives
Ouch! Best approaches to menstrual pain
Contraceptive efficacy: understanding how user and method characteristics play their part
Strategizing treatment for chronic heavy menstrual bleeding
Untangling the literature on obesity and contraception
High tech apps for no-tech FABM
Menstrual exacerbation of other medical conditions
From Princeton University: Thomas James Trussell (1949-2018)
The Short and Long of IUD Use Duration
Selecting a Method When Guidance Isn’t Clear-cut
Healthcare in the Time of Digital Expansion
The Scoop on Two New FDA-Approved Contraceptive Methods
Pregnancy of unknown location—meeting the challenge
Big “yes” (with caveats) to CHCs during perimenopause
The role of IUDs (LNG IUDs, too!) in emergency contraception
Combined pills’ effect on mood disorders
Abortion in the U.S.: safe, declining, and under threat
Hope for ovarian cancer screening test
Breast cancer still a small risk with some hormonal contraceptives
Record rate of HPV-related throat cancer
Viruses in semen potentially transmissible
Don’t Abstain from Your Role in Abstinence
Teens births declining but geographic ‘hotspots’ defy trend
Online Medical Abortion Service Effective and Safe
Do Women Really Need to Wait That Long?
Reassuring news on depression and OC use
PMDD: Genetic clues may lead to improved treatment
Breast cancer risk when there is a family history
Body weight link to breast and endometrial cancers (and 11 others)
Family Planning in 2017 and Beyond
Make Me Cry: Depression Link (Again)?
Managing implant users’ bleeding and spotting
Zika: Updated guidance for providers
Pharmacist-prescribed contraceptives
Hot off the press! 2016 MEC and SPR
Zika virus fears prompt increased request for abortion in nations outlawing abortions
Opioid use epidemic among reproductive-age women
Good news on the family planning home front!
War Against Planned Parenthood Hurts Women
Win-win for both treatment and prevention
Menopause, mood, mental acuity, and hormone therapy
Emergency contraception for teens
Postpartum Contraception: Now, Not Later
Are we practicing what we preach?
Be alert to VTE in hormonal contraceptive users
LARC among teens increased 15-fold, but not enough
Brain cancer and hormonal contraception
Free tools: Easy access to the US Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use
Alcohol consumption when pregnancy is unwanted or unintended
Latest Data on Contraceptive Use in the United States
LateBreaker sampler from Contraceptive Technology conference
Emergency Contraceptive Pill Efficacy and BMI/Body Weight
Handout on Unintended Pregnancy and Contraceptive Choice
Ask About Withdrawal (Really!)
Rules to Practice By: Safety First and Cleanliness is Close to. . .
What’s Vanity Fair Got Against the NuvaRing?
Promising New Treatment for Hepatitis C
Numbers matter, so make them simple for patients
The Recession’s Effect on Unintended Pregnancies
Lessons Learned from the Contraceptive CHOICE Project: The Hull LARC Initiative
Applying the “New” Cervical Cytology Guidelines in Your Practice
Acute Excessive Uterine Bleeding: New Management Strategies
Medical indications for IUD use in teens

How to better inform women about the benefits of long-acting reversible contraception? Here is a counseling tool based on the lessons learned from the St. Louis Contraceptive CHOICE Project.
In the Contraceptive CHOICE Project, women were offered free contraception for three years if they switched contraceptive methods—from nothing to something or from one method to another—and read a brief introductory script that emphasized the effectiveness of intrauterine contraceptives (IUCs) and implants. The investigators hoped that use of intrauterine contraception would reach 6% to 10% and implants would reach 3%. The results were simply stunning. Of the 9,250 participants, 75% chose these methods: Mirena (46%), ParaGard (12%), and Implanon (17%). In the United Kingdom, women pay nothing for contraception, but the proportion choosing these methods falls far short of 75%. In Hull, England, we launched our own initiative. We developed a simple double-sided A4 hand-out. On one side was a script with pictures of copper and levonorgestrel IUCs next to a 20-pence coin and of an implant next to a hair grip. On the other side was the three-tiered effectiveness chart from Contraceptive Technology. The goal was to have the receptionist give the hand-out to every woman and ask her to read it before seeing a clinician. Then the clinician would ask the woman if she had read it and if she had any questions. Although we implemented the project in family planning, abortion, and antenatal clinics and selected GP practices, we planned to evaluate it only in family planning clinics and GP practices because electronic records were available.
There was no overall impact in family planning clinics. However, only one, the service hub (Conifer House) is open daily (except Sunday) and has permanent sexual health staff on the reception desk. In Conifer house the proportion of women receiving IUCs or implants increased 15% from October 2012-April 2012 to May 2012-November 2012 (from 30.7% to 35.2%, p=0.0002), indicating that the project was highly effective. The proportion returned to baseline in December 2012-November 2013. Reasons for this decline are being investigated. Data from GPs will become available in late March. This simple, extremely low-cost intervention was highly effective, by far the most cost effective on record. It can easily be replicated.
Feel free to adapt the materials below for your own counseling tool.
James Trussell and Kate Guthrie
Download this chart here: Hull LARC Initiative Effectiveness Chart
Download this script here: Hull LARC Initiative Handout Script