The recommended ways of ruling out patient pregnancy before starting a new contraceptive include a pregnancy test, the date of the patient’s last unprotected sexual intercourse, and the patient’s symptoms. But there often are cases where it is difficult to rule out pregnancy.

In recent years, family planning clinics have faced many obstacles to providing contraceptive access to all patients who need it. Access issues worsened under changes to Title X and the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that allows some employers to opt out of providing contraception coverage. Reproductive health experts worry these recent changes — and COVID-19’s effect on access — could result in more unintended pregnancies.

The Affordable Care Act mandated that employers provide contraceptive coverage to workers at no cost. In July, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a Trump administration regulation to let employers with religious or moral objections opt out of the mandate.

Family planning clinicians and obstetrician/gynecologists likely will see transgender or gender-diverse patients seeking contraceptive care. Clinicians should learn more about transgender and gender-diverse patients to better inform their care of these populations.

Medicaid claims data among a North Carolina cohort show that women were less likely to fill a contraceptive claim within 90 days after preterm birth. Investigators theorized it would be harder for women to access contraception after a preterm birth because they would be caring for a medically fragile infant. Also, women who deliver preterm experience shorter pregnancies, which means there is less time for a conversation with their healthcare providers about contraception.

For decades, clinicians and the public assumed that copper intrauterine devices (IUDs) prevented pregnancy by preventing implantation. There also was fear that IUDs could increase a woman’s risk of HIV infection. Results of a new study suggested these assumptions are incorrect.

New research revealed that some emergency contraceptives might not be effective for women at higher body weights. Evidence suggests that levonorgestrel emergency contraception may have reduced effectiveness in individuals who weigh 165 pounds or more, and possibly no effectiveness for those who weigh 176 pounds or more.

Martha Brady, MS, director of sexual and reproductive health for PATH in Washington, DC, spoke to Contraceptive Technology Update about reproductive health self-care and how it works in other nations.

A new study revealed that women can engage in self-care reproductive health through the use of subcutaneous injectable contraception. Adherence has long been a barrier to using injectable contraceptives. Could women administer the medication at the correct time and in the correct way? The authors of a new study answer that question affirmatively.