Recent Research Shows Birth Control Pills that Follow a 24-day Regime may be More Effective

Birth control pills that contain drospirenone such as Yasim and Yaz may be more effective in preventing pregnancy compared to birth control pills that follow a 21-day regime, which are most birth control pills that have 21 regular pills and 7 sugar pills.

The Study

The study involved 52,218 women who used oral birth control pills. The study looked at the different types of oral contraceptives these women were using and the failure rate excluding not taking the contraceptives correctly.

The Study Results

“The study found that women on a 24-day regimen containing drospirenone had lower failure rates compared with the standard 21-day regimen of pills containing other types of progestins: a 2.1% failure rate after one year of use compared with 3.5% for the other pills and a 4.7% failure rate after three years compared with 6.7%.”

Conclusion

A 24-day regime of oral contraceptives provides the woman with more protection than a 21-day regime. Although, when birth control pills are taken correctly they are all pretty much equal in being effective. All types of oral birth control pills are 99% effective.

Source: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/06/news/la-heb-pills-20110106