Contraception
Also known as: birth control · family planning · IUD
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U.S. Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use, 2024
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) · 2024 · 2024 edition (MMWR Recomm Rep 73, No. RR-4)
CDC's reference document classifying the safety of specific contraceptive methods for people with particular medical conditions or characteristics, using a four-level eligibility category system. It is intended as a clinical decision aid for US health care providers rather than a treatment protocol. Metadata record only.
- Published as MMWR Recommendations and Reports 2024;73(4):1-126 and explicitly replaces the 2016 U.S. MEC. source
- Adds recommendations for people with chronic kidney disease and revises criteria for a range of conditions including postpartum and breastfeeding status, obesity, thrombosis and thrombophilia, and HIV-related drug interactions. source
- Incorporates newer contraceptive products and formulations, including additional IUDs, rings, patches, progestin-only pills and a vaginal pH modulator. source
Medical eligibility criteria for contraceptive use, fifth edition
World Health Organization (WHO) · 2015 · Fifth edition
WHO's global guidance on the safety of contraceptive methods for people with specific health conditions and characteristics, organised as four eligibility categories. It underpins many national eligibility criteria documents and is aimed at policy makers, programme managers and clinicians worldwide. Metadata record only.
US vs EU key differences
- The US criteria are an explicit national adaptation of the WHO criteria rather than an independent document, re-tailored for a resource-rich setting and addressed to individual clinicians, whereas the WHO fifth edition is written for national policymakers and family-planning programme managers. source
- Version currency differs by nearly a decade: the US criteria were refreshed in 2024, while the cited WHO medical eligibility criteria remain the fifth edition from 2015. source
- The 2024 US update covers methods and conditions absent from the 2015 WHO edition, including the vaginal pH modulator as a new method category and new classifications for chronic kidney disease across nephrotic syndrome, haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. source
- Antiretroviral drug-interaction guidance is broader in the US version, which extends recommendations to antiretrovirals used for HIV prevention (PrEP) and not only for treatment. source
- The US criteria use finer-grained postpartum time bands for combined hormonal contraception in breastfeeding women (under 21 days, 21-30 days, 30-42 days, and over 42 days), reflecting US-specific weighting of venous thromboembolism risk. source
What changed recently
- US2016 edition (U.S. MEC 2016) → 2024 edition (MMWR Recomm Rep 73, No. RR-4)2024-08-08
The 2024 edition explicitly replaces the 2016 U.S. MEC. It adds chronic kidney disease (including nephrotic syndrome and patients on haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis) as a new condition and revises guidance for several others, among them postpartum and breastfeeding use, postabortion contraception distinguishing medication from procedural abortion, thrombophilia and venous thromboembolism on anticoagulation, sickle cell disease, lupus, and interactions with HIV antiretroviral therapy.
- GLOBALFourth edition (2009) → Fifth edition2015-02-03
The fifth edition kept most fourth-edition criteria but changed several postpartum and HIV-related recommendations: progestogen-only pills and implants in the first six weeks after birth moved from category 3 to category 2, the levonorgestrel IUD was cleared for insertion within 48 hours of delivery or from four weeks, and new guidance was added for women at high risk of HIV and for those on antiretroviral therapy using hormonal contraception.
source ↗curation confidence 90%
See the full update feed for changes across every system.