Prescribing and managing oral contraceptive pills and emergency contraception for adolescents

Oral contraceptive pills safely and effectively prevent pregnancy when taken correctly. Careful counseling about noncontraceptive benefits and common side effects is essential to prevent discontinuation and inadvertent pregnancy. Successful management of common complaints fan be accomplished by identifying and modifying estrogen and progestin-related side effects. Emergency contraceptive pills can be taken within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse to reduce the risk of pregnancy by at least 75%. However, they are most effective if taken within 24 hours of coitus. Primary care providers can reduce the unintended adolescent pregnancy by routinely counseling adolescents at all office visits about the existence of emergency contraception and by providing easy access to it by prescribing it in advance or over the telephone.