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Contraception - Management
Broken combined contraceptive vaginal ring: what should be done?
- If the ring is found to be broken during use, advise the woman to remove it, reinsert a new ring as soon as possible, and use additional barrier contraception for the next 7 days (a woman would not be aware of any symptoms if a ring breaks, but she would notice it was broken when it was removed).
- If it is suspected that unprotected sexual intercourse has taken place in the previous 5 days, emergency contraception should be considered — see the CKS topic on Contraception - emergency.
Basis for recommendation
- These recommendations are based on the Summary of Product Characteristics of NuvaRing® combined vaginal ring [ABPI Medicines Compendium, 2009b].
- There is no specific advice regarding when the risk of pregnancy should be considered following the discovery of a broken ring, so clinical judgement should be used to decide when emergency contraception should be considered.
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