Contraceptive Pearl: Twelve Month Prescriptions
What is the simplest way to improve your patients’ adherence to prescription contraceptives? Easy: prescribe a one-year supply. That is, write your contraceptive prescriptions for a 3-month supply with 3 refills. This doesn’t take any extra clinician time or effort, and there is good evidence that it helps women adhere to their method. (See a Guttmacher Institute review on this topic: Making the Case for a “Contraceptive Convenience” Agenda.)
Dispensing a year’s worth of contraceptives is even better than prescribing a year’s worth. Women who walk out of their clinic carrying a year’s supply are less likely to experience unintended pregnancy.
What prevents clinicians from making this change? The main barrier is medical tradition. We are trained to use refills as a tool to bring patients back to the office–for follow-up on unrelated issues, to check for side effects or complications, or even for financial reasons. Prescribing a full year’s worth of medication–even for a patient who should come back to the office in a month or two–requires a shift in our thinking. We must separate refills from follow-up.
Try this in your office! It’s a simple, easy way to prevent unintended pregnancy.
We appreciate your feedback! Please write us at pearls@reproductiveaccess.org with any questions, comments or additional resources to add to our list.
Helpful Resources
Your Birth Control Choice Fact Sheet
Sources
Pharma-free
The Reproductive Health Access Project does not accept funding from pharmaceutical companies. We do not promote specific brands of medication or contraception. The information in the Contraceptive Pearls is unbiased, based on science alone.
