Copper-bearing intrauterine devices (Cu-IUD) should be offered to all eligible women requesting emergency contraception, the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare has stressed in updated guidance.

As well as referral, it is advised that oral emergency contraception can be given to women in the interim. Where health professionals cannot deliver these themselves referral mechanisms should be in place to ensure that women can access their chosen contraceptive method, according to the faculty, which is part of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

The advice came in updated guidance from the faculty on emergency contraception published last month. It called on health professionals to discuss women's individual need for emergency contraception and inform them about the different options available. Women choosing the IUD option can be referred by pharmacists to family planning clinics, some GPs and most Brook Centres.

Women requesting emergency contraception should also be advised about ongoing contraception and should be offered follow up services if they need pregnancy or STI testing, implant removal or have any concerns about their contraception, the guidance states.

Though the possibility of providing emergency contraception in advance was explored in the document, the faculty said there was no evidence to support "routine provision". It stated that many women were reluctant to ask for advance supply for fear of being judged, however, and recommended that healthcare professionals needed to be "more proactive about providing women with information about the use of emergency contraception".

Read C+D's guide to the 14 methods of contraception.