Ready When She Is: Investing in On-Demand Contraception
October 2022. A portion of sexually active women do not use contraception, because they do not have sex frequently. The on-demand use of levonorgestrel 1,5 mg pills is being studied, and could expand the choice of contraceptives for those who have infrequent sex and thus, do not want to use a regular method, but do not want to get pregnant.
The ReadyWhenSheIs movement has been recently established by PSI and partners, to advocate for the development of on-demand and women-controlled contraceptive options.
Although unrecognized and highly stigmatized, on-demand use of ECPs is already a reality in Europe. Data is very scarce, but some studies in Nordic countries identified that up to 50% of EC users, have used EC pills at more than once in their life time.1
The ReadyWhenSheIs movements targets mainly the estimated 150 million sexually active women in low- and middle-income countries that report having infrequent sex and not using contraception. However, exploring how to better respond to the needs of this population is also a relevant issue for women in Europe.
Visit the ReadyWhenSheIs webiste to learn more and join this movement: https://www.psi.org/project/rwsi-home/
1 Guleria, S., Munk, C., Elfström, K., Hansen, B., Sundström, K., & Liaw, K. et al. (2020). Emergency contraceptive pill use among women in Denmark, Norway and Sweden: Population‐based survey. Acta Obstetricia Et Gynecologica Scandinavica, 99(9), 1214-1221. doi: 10.1111/aogs.13849. Retrived 23 November 2021, from https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/aogs.13849
