title: Contraceptive Failure in the United States: Estimates from the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth.
abstract: Contraceptive failure rates measure a woman's probability of becoming pregnant while using a contraceptive. Information about these rates enables couples to make informed contraceptive choices. Failure rates were last estimated for 2002, and social and economic changes that have occurred since then necessitate a reestimation.
  
  
  
  To estimate failure rates for the most commonly used reversible methods in the United States, data from the 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth were used; some 15,728 contraceptive use intervals, contributed by 6,683 women, were analyzed. Data from the Guttmacher Institute's 2008 Abortion Patient Survey were used to adjust for abortion underreporting. Kaplan-Meier methods were used to estimate the associated single-decrement probability of failure by duration of use. Failure rates were compared with those from 1995 and 2002.
  
  
  
  Long-acting reversible contraceptives (the IUD and the implant) had the lowest failure rates of all methods (1%), while condoms and withdrawal carried the highest probabilities of failure (13% and 20%, respectively). However, the failure rate for the condom had declined significantly since 1995 (from 18%), as had the failure rate for all hormonal methods combined (from 8% to 6%). The failure rate for all reversible methods combined declined from 12% in 2002 to 10% in 2006-2010.
  
  
  
  These broad-based declines in failure rates reverse a long-term pattern of minimal change. Future research should explore what lies behind these trends, as well as possibilities for further improvements.
authors.affiliation: senior research scientist, the Guttmacher Institute.
authors.forename: Aparna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sundaram
authors.affiliation: consultant, the Guttmacher Institute.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vaughan
authors.affiliation: director of domestic research, the Guttmacher Institute.
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kost
authors.affiliation: director of international research, the Guttmacher Institute.
authors.forename: Akinrinola
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bankole
authors.affiliation: vice president of domestic research, the Guttmacher Institute.
authors.forename: Lawrence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Finer
authors.affiliation: vice president of international research, the Guttmacher Institute.
authors.forename: Susheela
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: professor emeritus of economics and public affairs and senior research demographer at Princeton University and honorary fellow, University of Edinburgh.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Trussell
mesh_terms: D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003076:Coitus Interruptus; D017280:Condoms; D003270:Contraceptive Agents; D004343:Drug Implants; D004868:Equipment Failure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007434:Intrauterine Devices; D011247:Pregnancy; D018873:Pregnancy Rate; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017211:Treatment Failure; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D003270:Contraceptive Agents; D004343:Drug Implants