Combining levonorgestrel with the NSAID piroxicam may be more effective at preventing pregnancy than taking the on-demand emergency contraceptive alone, show results from a new study. 

Hong Kong–led doctors reported that 95% of potential pregnancies were prevented when women took levonorgestrel plus piroxicam following unprotected sex compared with 63% among those given the morning-after pill with placebo. 

“This new regimen … can be adopted clinically when levonorgestrel emergency contraception is the option of choice,” the team wrote in The Lancet. 

Their randomised controlled trial compared efficacy and safety outcomes in 860 women who received levonorgestrel 1.5mg plus either piroxicam 40mg or placebo orally within 72 hours of unprotected sex.