On September 23, 2026, the World Health Organization published "WHO guidelines on expanding contraceptive options." The guidelines widen how existing methods can be used and, for the first time, set a formal development target for contraceptives men control. WHO now recommends that combined oral contraceptive pills can be taken for extended periods of up to six months, or continuously for up to a year, instead of monthly cycles. It supports contraceptive implants for up to five years, and it adds mifepristone at 10–50 mg as an emergency contraception option taken within five days of unprotected sex. WHO called for more research on ormeloxifene before it is used in family-planning programmes, and it recommended against adding quinestrol-containing pills to national programmes, citing limited evidence and reports of serious adverse events. The agency estimates that 164 million women who want to delay or avoid pregnancy are not using contraception.
Why It Matters
A WHO Target Product Profile shapes markets. It tells funders what "good enough" looks like, gives regulators and procurement agencies a common benchmark, and lowers the risk of late-stage investment in a category that has been "five years away" for fifty years. For the startups in the space, including Contraline, which Afterglow covered after its $92.5M Series B, a WHO-defined spec plus WHO's own demand data (75% couple willingness) is the kind of third-party validation that helps with Series C and pharma-partnership conversations. The extended-cycle pill and five-year implant recommendations matter for the consumer side of reproductive health too. They legitimise period-suppression regimens that telehealth contraception platforms already offer, and they undercut the logic of monthly-refill subscription models. Adding mifepristone as emergency contraception is significant internationally, though it collides with US political fights over the drug, which keeps it from being a near-term US retail product. The headline for sexual-wellness brands is simpler: the world's top health body is now treating men as contraceptive users-in-waiting, and the first products to market will need a consumer-grade brand, not just a clinical dossier.The male-contraception section is the new part. WHO notes that men today have essentially three methods (condoms, withdrawal and vasectomy), yet about 30% of couples rely on one of them. It cites a four-country survey published in Contraception in which more than 75% of couples said they would be willing to use a new male contraceptive, and more than 85% of women said they would trust their partner to take responsibility for it. WHO has now issued its first Target Product Profile for male methods, setting the safety, effectiveness, acceptability and affordability benchmarks future products should meet. It estimates that new reversible male contraceptives may reach the market within five to ten years. "Choice is a gender equality issue," said Pascale Allotey, WHO's director of sexual, reproductive, maternal, child and adolescent health and ageing.
The pipeline WHO is writing for is real, if slow. A September 24 Mother Jones feature by Julia Lurie reports that the hormonal gel NES/T, tested in 462 couples between 2018 and 2024, will enter late-stage trials early next year. USC investigator Dr. Brian Nguyen told the magazine there were no serious adverse events and that the unplanned-pregnancy rate was in line with other hormonal methods. Mother Jones reports that Contraline, which it describes as the company developing NES/T, is also working on ADAM, a nonhormonal implant placed in the vas deferens that has shown effectiveness for up to 24 months and finished a 25-person safety trial this spring. YourChoice Therapeutics' nonhormonal daily pill is in an 88-person safety trial. "Men haven't been asked to come to the table," said Heather Vahdat of the Male Contraceptive Initiative.
Sources
- WHO expands safe options for contraception — World Health Organization news release
- Is Male Birth Control Finally Coming? — Mother Jones
Update — 2026-09-29
Initial entry — story first created.
Update — 2026-09-30
The evidence behind the mifepristone recommendation. A Cochrane systematic review led by Dr Shaalini Ramanadhan and colleagues at Oregon Health & Science University, covered by The Pharmacist on September 25 and Pharmacy Business on September 29, provides the evidence base behind WHO's new mifepristone EC recommendation. It pooled 87 randomised controlled trials of roughly 36,000 women who sought emergency contraception within five days of unprotected sex. It found that low-to-moderate doses of mifepristone prevent more pregnancies than levonorgestrel, the standard morning-after pill, with fewer side effects. Per The Pharmacist, it also compared favourably with several other EC options, including copper IUDs. "The evidence shows that mifepristone has benefits beyond abortion care," Ramanadhan said. The authors say policymakers should reassess its status. In the UK, mifepristone is prescription-only, while levonorgestrel EC is available over the counter.
Read: WHO's endorsement now has the Cochrane evidence behind it. The obstacle is regulatory rather than clinical: mifepristone's association with abortion keeps it prescription-only in the UK and politically contested in the U.S., which limits pharmacy and telehealth EC providers for now.