Family Planning

MethodologyThis handbook, one of the World Health Organization’s family planningcornerstones, provides evidence-based guidance developed throughworldwide collaboration. The World Health Organization (WHO)Department of Reproductive Health and Research invited more than30 organizations to participate in its preparation. The INFO Projectat the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center forCommunication Programs led the handbook development process.This handbook is the successor to The Essentials of Contraceptive Technology(Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Population Information Program,1997). While Essentials served as a starting point, new evidence-basedguidance has been incorporated and new content has been added (seeWhat’s New in This Handbook?, p. viii).Guidance in this book comes from several similar consensus processes:óóóThe Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use and the SelectedPractice Recommendations for Contraceptive Use. WHO Expert WorkingGroups developed this guidance.For additional questions specific to this handbook, a WHO ExpertWorking Group met in Geneva on 21-24 June 2005.To discuss topics needing special attention, several subgroups metbefore the June 2005 meeting. At the June 2005 meeting the fullExpert Working Group reviewed and endorsed the subgroups’recommendations.Content not addressed in these consensus processes was developedthrough collaboration between researchers at the INFO Project andtechnical experts. Then, a group of experts and, finally, representatives ofthe collaborating organizations had the opportunity to review the entire text.Some definitions used in this handbookEffectiveness: Rates are largely the percentages of US women estimated to haveunintended pregnancies during the first year of use, unless noted otherwise.Side effects: Conditions reported by at least 5% of users in selected studies,regardless of evidence of causality or biological plausibility, listed in order offrequency with the most common at the top.Terms describing health risks (percentage of users experiencing a risk):Common: >15% and 1% and 0.1% and