Everything You Need to Know About Nuvaring

The vaginal ring (NuvaRing) is a modest soft, plastic ring that you place inside your vagina.

Information technology releases a continuous dose of the hormones oestrogen and progestogen into the bloodstream to forbid pregnancy.

Vaginal ring. It looks like a round ring that's made of white plastic. It's shown against a pink background.

At a glance: facts about the vaginal ring

If used correctly, the vaginal ring is more than 99% effective.
One ring provides contraception for a month, so you lot don't have to think about information technology every mean solar day.
You can continue to take sex when the band is in place.
Unlike the pill, the ring even so works if y'all have sickness (vomiting) or diarrhoea.
The ring may ease premenstrual symptoms, and bleeding will probably be lighter and less painful.
Some women have temporary side effects, including more vaginal discharge, chest tenderness and headaches.
A few women develop a blood clot when using the band, just this is rare.
The ring can sometimes come up out on its own, just you tin can rinse it in cold or warm water and put it back in as presently as possible.
Information technology doesn't protect confronting sexually transmitted infections (STIs), so you may need to use condoms as well.

How the band works

The ring steadily releases the hormones oestrogen and progestogen into your bloodstream, which prevents the release of an egg each calendar month.

It also thickens the cervical mucus, which makes it more hard for sperm to move through the cervix, and thins the lining of the womb then a fertilised egg is less likely to implant itself.

When information technology starts to work

You tin can commencement using the vaginal band at whatsoever time during your menstrual cycle if you're not pregnant.

The standard way to employ the ring is you leave it in for 21 days, then remove information technology and have a 7-day band-free break. You're protected against pregnancy during the ring-free break. Later on the 7-24-hour interval interruption you then put a new ring in for another 21 days.

You can also choose to have a shorter ring-free intermission or not to have a break at all. This is as safe and effective every bit the standard employ. For more data on the different options talk to a GP or nurse.

You lot'll be protected against pregnancy straight away if you insert it in the first 5 days of your period (the commencement 5 days of your menstrual cycle). Talk to a GP or nurse about whether y'all need additional contraception if you have a very short cycle or an irregular bicycle.

If you start using the ring at any other time in your menstrual bike, you'll exist protected against pregnancy as long as you lot use additional contraception (such as condoms) for the first 7 days of using it.

If you are switching from some other type of contraception (excluding condoms) or you lot accept taken emergency contraception recently, the advice on when to start using the ring and how before long you'll be protected may be different.

Talk to a GP or nurse almost the best time to start using the band and whether you demand to use additional contraception. They can also give you advice on how to insert and remove it.

To insert the ring:

with clean easily, squeeze the ring betwixt your thumb and finger, and gently insert the tip into your vagina
gently push the ring up into your vagina until it feels comfy

Different a diaphragm or cap, the ring doesn't demand to cover the entrance to your womb (the cervix) to work.

Using your fingers, check regularly that the band is withal there. If you tin't experience it but you're sure it's there, see a GP or nurse. The ring tin can't get "lost" within you.

After the band has been in your vagina for 21 days (3 weeks), you lot remove it. This should be on the same day of the week that you lot put it in.

To remove the ring:

with clean hands, put a finger into your vagina and hook it around the edge of the ring
gently pull the ring out
put it in the bag provided and throw it in the bin – don't flush information technology downwards the toilet

Removing the ring should be painless. If you accept any bleeding or pain or you lot can't pull it out, see a GP or nurse immediately.

When you've taken the band out, you don't put a new one in for 7 days (one week). This is the ring-complimentary interval. You lot might have a menstruum-type drain during this time.

After 7 days without a band in, insert a new ane. Put the new ring in even if you're still bleeding. Leave this ring in for 21 days, then repeat the cycle.

Yous tin can take sex and employ tampons while the ring is in your vagina. You lot and your partner may feel the ring during sex activity, but this isn't harmful.

If you forget to take the ring out later on 21 days

If the ring has been in for up to 7 days after the end of week 3 (up to 4 weeks in full):

if you lot were planning to have a ring-complimentary break, have the ring out and start the break
if you were not planning to accept a ring-gratuitous break, accept out the ring and insert a new ring straight away
you're still protected against pregnancy, and you don't demand to use boosted contraception

If the ring has been in for more than 7 days after the end of week 3 (more 4 weeks in full):

take the ring out and put a new one in straight abroad
employ boosted contraception, such every bit condoms, for 7 days
you may demand emergency contraception if you've had sexual activity in the days before changing the rings over – run into a GP or nurse for advice

If you forget to put a new ring in

Put in a new ring as presently as you think, and employ boosted contraception (such as condoms) for 7 days.

Y'all may need emergency contraception if y'all had sexual practice before you remembered to put the new ring in, and the ring-costless interval was 48 hours longer than it should take been or more (9 days or more in full).

If the band comes out by itself

Sometimes the ring may come out on its own (expulsion). It may happen after or during sex, or if it wasn't put in properly.

What yous should do depends on how long the band is out for, and which calendar week of your cycle y'all're in.

If the band is out for less than 48 hours (regardless of where you are in your wheel) and you lot've been using that detail ring for 3 weeks or less:

rinse it with absurd or lukewarm water
re-insert the same ring equally soon as possible
you don't need additional contraception and you're protected from pregnancy if the ring was used correctly in previous weeks

If the ring is out for more than 48 hours in the get-go calendar week of using a ring:

insert a new band as soon equally possible and keep it in until the scheduled removal day
employ additional contraception for 7 days
you may need emergency contraception if you've had sex since putting in the new ring or during the ring-free break

If the band is out for more than 48 hours in the second or tertiary week of using a band:

insert a new ring every bit soon as possible and go along information technology in until the scheduled removal twenty-four hour period
use boosted contraception for vii days
if the ring came out in the third week and you are using the ring the standard way, skip the ring-free break
you practise not need emergency contraception if y'all have used the ring correctly in the previous 7 days

Who can employ the vaginal band?

Some women can't use the vaginal ring.

It may not be suitable if you:

have had a claret clot in a vein or avenue
have had heart or circulatory problems, including high claret pressure
are 35 or older and smoke, or stopped smoking in the past year
have migraine with aura (alert symptoms)
take had breast cancer in the past v years
have diabetes with complications
are overweight
take medicines that may interact with the ring
tin't hold the ring in your vagina

If you don't fume and there are no medical reasons why you lot can't apply the ring, you tin can use it until you lot're 50 years old.

Afterward giving nascence

You lot can offset using the vaginal ring 42 days after giving birth if you are breastfeeding. You will demand to use additional contraception for seven days (such as condoms).

You may be able to kickoff using the ring earlier than this – on mean solar day 21 afterwards giving birth – if you're not breastfeeding, but your physician will advise you. Y'all practice not then need to utilise additional contraception.

You lot may get fertile again soon afterwards giving birth. If you outset using the ring more than than 21 days subsequently giving birth, you will need to use additional contraception (such as condoms) before you showtime using the band.

After miscarriage or abortion

You tin can start using the ring immediately after a miscarriage or abortion, and it'll work straight away. Yous don't need to use additional contraception.

If more than 5 days accept passed since the miscarriage or abortion, you need to employ boosted contraception (such as condoms) for 7 days after you insert the band.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages:

information technology doesn't interrupt sexual activity
information technology'southward easy to put in and take out
you don't accept to think about it every 24-hour interval or each time you have sex
the ring isn't affected if you're sick (vomit) or have diarrhoea
it may help with premenstrual symptoms
flow-type bleeding commonly becomes lighter, more regular and less painful

Disadvantages:

you may non feel comfy inserting or removing it from your vagina
you lot tin can have spotting and bleeding in the first few months
it may cause temporary side effects, such every bit increased vaginal belch, headaches, nausea, chest tenderness and mood changes
the ring doesn't protect confronting STIs
you need to call back to change it and put in a new i – if remembering to do this is difficult, a longer-acting method such every bit the contraceptive implant or intrauterine device (IUD) may exist more suitable
some medicines can brand the ring less effective – see a GP, nurse or pharmacist for communication
it may take a while for y'all to render to normal fertility – in some women this may take upwards to a few months

Risks

There'due south a very pocket-size hazard of some serious side furnishings when you use a hormonal contraceptive similar the vaginal ring.

For virtually women, the benefits of the ring outweigh the possible risks, merely you lot should discuss all chance and benefits with a GP or nurse before y'all start it.

Blood clots

A very small number of people using the vaginal ring may develop a blood clot in a vein or an avenue. Don't utilise the band if you've had a blood clot before.

Cancer

Research suggests that people who employ the vaginal ring have a small increased risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer compared with those who don't. Simply this reduces with fourth dimension after y'all've stopped using the ring.

Research also suggests in that location's a pocket-sized increase in the risk of developing cervical cancer with long-term employ of oestrogen and progestogen hormonal contraception.

Where you can become the vaginal band

You can go contraception for costless, even if you're under 16, from:

contraception clinics
sexual health or genitourinary medicine (Glue) clinics
some GP surgeries
some young people'due south services

But not all clinics are able to provide the vaginal ring, and then it'southward worth checking start.

You won't be able to go a prescription for more than 4 months' supply at a fourth dimension considering this is its shelf life.

Observe your nearest sexual health clinic

Getting contraception during coronavirus

If yous need contraception, call your GP surgery or a sexual health dispensary as soon every bit possible. Just go in person if yous're told to.

Information technology can take longer to become contraception at the moment and some types are not widely available.

You may only exist able to get a vaginal band if you lot've had your blood pressure and weight checked in the final 12 months.

If yous cannot get a vaginal ring, you may be advised to use the progestogen-but pill or condoms for now.

If you're under 16 years one-time

Contraception services are gratuitous and confidential, including for people under the age of xvi.

If you're under 16 and want contraception, the doctor, nurse or pharmacist won't tell your parents (or carer) equally long every bit they believe you lot fully understand the information you're given, and the decisions you're making.

Doctors and nurses work nether strict guidelines when dealing with people nether xvi. They'll encourage you to consider telling your parents, merely they won't make you.

The only time a professional person might desire to tell someone else is if they believe you're at hazard of impairment, such as abuse.

The risk would need to be serious, and they would unremarkably talk over this with y'all outset.

Page last reviewed: vi July 2021
Side by side review due: 6 July 2024

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Source: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/contraception/vaginal-ring/