THE PILL (THE COMBINED ORAL CONTRACEPTIVE PILL): TYPES AND EFFICIENCY
Does the Pill come in different types? The combined oral contraceptive pill comes in three different types of formula. The three types are called monophasic, biphasic and triphasic formulas and they vary as follows:
• Monophasic pills have exactly the same amount of hormones in each of the 21 pills.
• Biphasic pills have the same amount of oestrogen in each pill but choose of progestogen increases in the second half of the pack.
• Triphasic pills have more oestrogen in the middle of the pack, and the progestogen is increased twice during the course of the pack. Each different type of pill will be a different colour in the pack.
How does the Pill work? The oestrogen and the progestogen taken together each day prevent the ovaries from releasing an egg. The progestogen also makes the mucus in the cervix thicker so that sperm cannot get through and makes the lining of the uterus thinner so that even if an egg were fertilised, it cannot implant and grow there.
How effective is the Pill? If you take the Pill every day as directed, it can be over 98 percent effective. That means that if 100 women used the Pill as their method of contraception for a year, no more than two of them, and perhaps none of them would have an unplanned pregnancy.
But because we are only human and humans make mistakes, the Pill is not always taken as directed. Sometimes women forget to take their pills, and if they don’t take them as directed they are more likely to get pregnant. So, it is more accurate to say that between one and six women who use the Pill for a year would have an unplanned pregnancy.
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