Table 1. Incidence of unwanted pregnancy in the first year of use per 100 women with actual (Pearl-Index) and ideal use (theoretical Pearl-Index value) of various methods of contraception (1).

Method	Adjusted Pearl Index (ideal use)	Pearl Index (typical use)
None	85	85
Female sterilization	0.5	0.5
Male sterilization	0.1	0.15
Oral ovulation inhibitorsl	0.3	8 (2.2 *1, 2)
Contraceptive patch	0.3	8 (1.2 *2)
Contraceptive vaginal ring	0.3	8 (1.2 *2)
Progestagen only pill (POP)	0.3	8
POP with desogestrel	(0.14*2)	(0.41*2)
Depot progestagen (medroxyprogesterone acetate)	0.3	3
Gestagen implant	0.05	0.05
Copper IUD	0.6	0.8
Levonorgestrel IUD	0.2	0.2
Diaphragm with spermicide	6	16
Male condom (without spermicide)	2	15
Female condom (without spermicide)	5	21
Spermicide	18	29
Intravaginal sponge (nulliparous women)	9	16
Intravaginal sponge (parous women)	20	32
Coitus interruptus	4	27
Rhythm method	3–5	25

^*1amended using data from Dinger et al. 2011 (3);

^*2amended using data from Mansour et al. 2010 (5); IUD, intrauterine device