How reliable is NuvaRing in preventing pregnancy?

If methods for protecting against pregnancy are not used, out of every 100 women who are sexually active over a year, 85 of them will become pregnant. The NuvaRing contraceptive is not 100 % effective at preventing pregnancy. Similarly to other methods of contraception such as the intrauterine device (IUD) or coil, the levels of protection are very high but not guaranteed to prevent pregnancy. Use of the intrauterine device (IUD) or the NuvaRing results with only 1-2 women from becoming pregnant out of every 100 women using the devices per year. In fact the most reliable methods and only methods that are more effective than the IUD or NuvaRing are sterilisation, hormonal injection or hormonal implants. The numbers of pregnancies when using these forms of contraception are less than 1 pregnancy per year for every 100 women using these forms of contraception.

However, a study in Europe in 2000 tested the NuvaRing on 1145 women, who used NuvaRing for one year. In that year there were 6 pregnancies, this reports the effectiveness of the NuvaRing at less than 1 pregnancy a year for every 100 women using NuvaRing, a much higher rate than other reports.

NuvaRing is therefore one of the most reliable methods of protecting against unwanted pregnancies. These rates are even lower than for the oral contraceptives, which have a pregnancy rate of 5 out of every 100 women using the pill, becoming pregnant per year. These rates are very much lower than when using the male condom whereby 14 out of every 100 females becoming pregnant yearly.

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