Oral contraceptive pill

Oral contraceptives are medications taken by mouth for the purpose of birth control.

Female

Two types of female oral contraceptive pill are widely available:

• The combined oral contraceptive pill contains oestrogen and a progestogen, and is taken once per day.
• The progestogen-only pill contains only progestogen, and is also taken once per day.

Other types of female oral contraceptive are experimental or only available in limited areas:

• Mifepristone is an antiprogestogen which has been used as a daily oral contraceptive in investigational clinical trials.
• Ormeloxifene (also known as Centchroman) is a selective oestrogen receptor modulator which is taken one to two times per week. Ormeloxifene is approved as an oral contraceptive only in India.

Male

• Male oral contraceptives are currently not available commercially, although several possibilities are in various stages of research and development