Adult dose and durationOne copper intrauterine device, inserted by a trained provider. There is no milligram dose - the device itself is the treatment. The article rates the copper IUD the most effective method available, with long-term contraception as an advantage on top, and grades that as Level A evidence, good and consistent. - Insert within 5 days of unprotected intercourse; it may then be left in place as ongoing contraception for up to 10 years
Paediatric doseNo paediatric weight dosing applies - this is a device. The article recommends it in adolescents who want long-term contraception.
Dose sourceEmergency contraception - disease-level clinical article (emergency-contraception-full.txt)
WhyThe card offered only the two oral options and the article makes this the most effective of all of them - it prevents pregnancy in 99% of cases against 70% for levonorgestrel and 85% for ulipristal, and its efficacy does not fall with time or with body weight. It is a device, so it carries no dose; the physician approved zero-dose and zero-brand rows on 2026-08-16 (croup oxygen), and this one is not even zero-brand - nine copper IUDs are registered in Egypt, from 7.50 EGP. The generic is written as the register writes it (COPPER), and the role says what the product actually is.
Cautions- Intrauterine, not intravaginal. The form is recorded as vaginal because that is the route the Egyptian register files it under and it is what finds the product; the device is fitted into the uterine cavity by someone trained to do it.
- CONTRAINDICATED - the copper IUD must NOT be used where the woman is pregnant, where there is pelvic infection, where the periods are already heavy, or in Wilson disease. (Postcoital Contraception - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf, NBK559157)
- It needs an examination and a test the tablets do not: a pregnancy test, and a bimanual examination, are required before a copper IUD goes in - and only before that one, not before the oral options. (Postcoital Contraception - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf, NBK559157)
- When to prefer it - the copper IUD, and ulipristal acetate with it, work no less well as the hours pass, so where the woman comes late after unprotected sex both should be considered first. (Postcoital Contraception - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf, NBK559157) It is also the option unaffected by body weight and by enzyme-inducing drugs.
- The window - up to 5 days after unprotected sex, a woman asking for emergency contraception should be able to have any of them: ulipristal acetate, the combined oestrogen-and-progestogen pills, or the copper IUD. WHO goes wider on the coil, backing insertion as far out as 12 days, provided a pregnancy test taken at the time comes back negative.
- What it commits the patient to - a copper IUD means an urgent appointment inside the window to have it fitted, and it carries a risk of perforation put at 1 in 1000, along with cramping of the uterus and, for some women, heavier periods afterwards. (Postcoital Contraception - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf, NBK559157)
- It keeps working afterwards - no other method matches it for effectiveness, and once in, it goes on providing contraception for as long as 10 years from insertion. (Postcoital Contraception - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf, NBK559157) That is an advantage the tablets do not have, and a conversation to have at the same visit.
- This is a procedure, not a prescription - it needs a trained inserter and an appointment inside the window, which is the practical reason it is the least used of the three.