All you need to know about pregnancy testing

Asian woman looking at pregnancy test
  • Is the pregnancy test positive or negative?
  • When to do the test?
  • What to do next?

Wondering if you might be pregnant can be a difficult time. You may be either desperate to be pregnant, or desperate not to be pregnant – but either way, you want to know as soon as possible – and be sure of the result.

Read on and see what pregnancy testing is all about, how and when to test, and what the results may mean.

Read in full

UK prices for morning after pill: is there an alternative?


morning after pill prices headlines

News articles over the weekend (7-8 May 2016) revealed that women in the UK are paying an astonishing five times more for the morning after pill than those in other European countries.

Experts have also expressed outrage at the hoops that must be jumped through to get the drug, calling on the government to make it available off the shelf, as well as reduce the price. Unlike in France, Scandinavia, and the United States, the pill is not available without a consultation; women are required to undergo a consultation and discuss their sex lives with a pharmacist or doctor in order to access the time-sensitive emergency contraception.

High costs and a difficult process to obtain the morning after pill have resulted in what Anne Furedi of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service calls a framework that is “insulting, expensive and does not meet women’s needs”, according to The Independent. Read in full

Can I trust my contraceptive?

contraceptive failuresWe all want to trust our contraceptive but how reliable are they really? There are statistics out there but how do we interpret them?

The background level of fertility varies naturally between couples. Many forms of contraception are affected by “user reliability”. Women’s natural fertility declines from the age of 27 and men’s from age 60, so there are lots of factors to consider. Statistics often quote a figure for “consistent and correct” use (often from clinical trials) but these are often very different from “typical” use, which is a more helpful figure to most people. Read in full