Every emergency contraceptive alters the next period, and mifepristone delays it more than levonorgestrel does. The standard advice — test if your period is late — therefore fails in the exact way the drug is designed to work. Women wait, then test early, then test again, and some take a second course in the same cycle because they believe the first one failed.
Replace the condition with a date. Count 21 days from the tablet, write that date on the packet or the prescription, and tell her that a period arriving before it is normal, a period arriving after it is expected, and a test on that date settles the question either way.
It costs one line at the counter and removes the most common reason these women come back.
- Write the test date on the packet in front of her.
- Say that a late period is the drug working, not the drug failing.
- Tell her a second dose in the same cycle does not undo the first.
- Offer ongoing contraception at the same visit — emergency use is the moment she is most receptive.
- If she is already on a progestogen method, say plainly whether the emergency dose interacts with it.
Why it matters
The commonest cause of a repeat emergency contraception visit is a delay the drug was always going to cause.
Read the rest in the app
You have read your two free briefings this month. The app carries all 27 specialties, every morning, free — and this finding is waiting in it.
Scan to keep reading on your phone. No account needed to start.
Tomorrow morning, before your first patient
One edition a day for obstetrics & gynaecology, written by the desk, every claim tied to its paper. Six minutes.
Get the app — free