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.

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