Abstract

About 190,000 therapeutic terminations of pregnancy occur in the UK each year.1 Many of these could be prevented by the use of emergency contraception. We have previously discussed the use of combined hormonal emergency contraception.2 Now, a progestogen-only emergency contraceptive, levonorgestrel in the form of ▼Levonelle-2 (Schering Health), has been licensed in the UK. The manufacturer claims that the treatment offers "unsurpassed efficacy in oral emergency contraception" with "significantly less nausea and vomiting than combined oral emergency contraception". We investigate these claims and discuss whether Levonelle-2 is an advance in emergency contraception.