Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About...
Types of Emergency Contraception
What brands of emergency contraception are available in the United States?
There are currently three brands of emergency contraceptive pills sold in the United States: Plan B One-Step, Plan B and Next Choice. You can also use many kinds of daily birth control pills to prevent pregnancy after sex.
Plan B One-Step, Plan B and Next Choice contain the hormone progestin.
Your other options for emergency
contraception include taking a different dose of your daily birth
control pills (most of which contain both progestin
and estrogen, so they are called “combined” pills)
or having a health care provider insert an IUD
within five days after your birth control failed, you had sex without
using contraception, or you were forced to have sex. Preven, the brand
name of a combined emergency
contraceptive pill that was approved for use in the United States,
is no longer being sold here. Progestin-only pills (like Plan B One-Step, Plan B or Next Choice) are more effective and have fewer side effects
than combined emergency
contraceptive pills.
There are different age restrictions for the emergency contraceptive pills available in the United States, so it can be a bit confusing. If you are 17 years old and need emergency contraception, be sure to call the pharmacy first because you may or may not be able to buy EC without a prescription.
- Plan B One-Step and Next Choice are approved for sale without prescription to women and men 17 and older. Women aged 16 and younger need a prescription.
- Plan B (the original version, which contains 2 pills instead of one) is still carried in some pharmacies but will be phased out soon. To buy this pill without prescription, you must be aged 18 or older.
In some states, women of all ages can get emergency contraceptive pills directly from a pharmacist, without having to see a doctor first. Use our database to find health care providers, including pharmacists, near you who offer emergency contraception.