[Forgetting hormonal contraceptive methods: expert opinion about their daily management in clinical routine practice]

Many guidelines regarding the daily management of regular oral hormonal contraceptive methods have been proposed worldwide. Some of them may even appear to be conflicting. The search for the maximal contraceptive protection leads to a low acceptance of these guidelines, probably because of their complexity and their apparent discrepancy. We are deeply convinced that simplicity and pragmatism of guidelines should pave the way to both their better acceptance and compliance and, consequently, to their improved real-life effectiveness. We have considered physiology and pharmacodynamics before proposing the following rules for an effective management of hormonal contraceptive failures. We conclude that the risk of unwanted pregnancy is higher in case of a unique contraception misuse/a delayed start during the first week of the contraceptive cycle (or in case of multiple days of contraceptive misuses during the following weeks) for a combined contraception or at every cycle day for a non anti-ovulatory progestin only contraception. In such risky situations, we firmly recommend the restart of the regular contraceptive method and the use of condoms for the following 72 hours, provided no sexual intercourse has occurred during the past 5 days before the contraceptive failure. If sexual intercourse has occurred during the past 5 days before the contraceptive failure, we firmly recommend the intake of an emergency contraception, ulipristal acetate, the restart the regular contraceptive method and in this case, the use of condoms for, at least, the following 7 days.