Percentage of Women Who Missed Taking Oral Contraceptive Pills

Arnold Solof, MD

Percentage of Women Who Missed Taking Oral Contraceptive Pills

CDC released some “Quickstats” in the September 15, 2017, MMWR:

“Percentage of Women Who Missed Taking Oral Contraceptive Pills* Among Women Aged 15–44 Years Who Used Oral Contraceptive Pills and Had Sexual Intercourse, Overall and by Age and Number of Pills Missed — National Survey Of Family Growth, United States, 2013–2015”

“Among women aged 15–44 years who used oral contraceptive pills in the last 4 weeks and had sexual intercourse in the past 12 months, 69% of women reported missing no pills, 15% missed one pill, and 16% missed two or more pills. Across the two age groups (15–24 years and 25–44 years), similar percentages of women aged 15–24 years reported missing no pills (67%) compared with women aged 25–44 years (70%). Similar percentages of women aged 15–24 years reported missing one pill (12%) compared with women aged 25–44 years (17%). A higher percentage of women aged 15–24 years (21%) reported missing two or more pills compared with women aged 25–44 years (13%).”

I wonder how much of the higher percentage of younger women missing 2 or more pills is due to relative immaturity vs. ambivalence as to whether they really want to prevent a pregnancy.

Still, there are a lot a missed pills in both groups.

I couldn’t find clear statistics about the percentage increase in the risk of pregnancy caused by missing 1 pill, 2 pills in a row, 3 pills in a row, etc.  But, the impression I got was the increased risk begins with the first missed pill (slight) and increases exponentially as the number of pills in a row missed increases.   This article on WebMD gives advice on what to do to minimize the risk of pregnancy if you miss one or more pills.