How to Help Your Patients Find the Morning After Pill in Stock: A Provider's Guide

When a patient calls your office or messages through your patient portal after a contraceptive failure or unprotected intercourse, every hour counts. Emergency contraception is maximally effective within the first 24 hours. Your ability to give quick, clear guidance—and connect patients with the right resources—can determine whether they can use emergency contraception in its most effective window.

Step 1: Rapidly Assess Which EC Option Is Most Appropriate

Before directing a patient to a pharmacy, quickly assess the following:

• Time since unprotected sex: Within 72 hours → levonorgestrel or ella are both options. 72–120 hours → ella or copper IUD only. Over 120 hours → EC pills are no longer appropriate.
• Body weight: Over 165 lbs → prefer ella or copper IUD over Plan B.
• Current medications: On anticonvulsants, rifampin, or other CYP3A4 inducers → recommend copper IUD.
• Patient preference for ongoing contraception: Consider copper IUD as it also provides 10 years of highly effective ongoing contraception.

Step 2: Use medfinder to Find Pharmacy Stock Quickly

One of the most practical resources you can share with patients is medfinder. medfinder calls pharmacies near the patient's location to identify which ones have the requested medication in stock. The patient enters their medication, dose, and zip code—and medfinder does the calling. This eliminates the patient having to spend 20–30 minutes calling pharmacies while within their emergency contraception window.

For emergency contraception, where an extra hour or two can meaningfully reduce effectiveness, this kind of targeted pharmacy search is a direct clinical benefit.

Step 3: Send the Ella Prescription Immediately via E-Prescribe

If you determine ella is the appropriate option, e-prescribing it directly to a local pharmacy is the fastest path for most patients. A physical examination is not required to prescribe Plan B One-Step or ella; the FDA labeling states explicitly that no physical exam is needed prior to prescribing.

Consider calling ahead to confirm the pharmacy has ella in stock before directing the patient—generic levonorgestrel is widely available, but ella may require a pharmacy call.

Step 4: Leverage Telehealth for After-Hours and Weekend Requests

When your office is closed, telehealth services can fill the gap. Services like GoodRx Care, Nurx, Planned Parenthood Direct, Hers, and Twentyeight Health provide rapid online prescriptions for ella, often routing to a local pharmacy within an hour. Providing patients with a list of these services as part of your contraceptive counseling is excellent anticipatory guidance.

Some of these platforms also offer overnight delivery of ella for patients in areas without accessible pharmacies.

Step 5: Refer Patients Needing a Copper IUD Promptly

If the copper IUD is the appropriate recommendation—due to body weight, drug interactions, timing beyond 72 hours, or patient preference—prioritize same-day or next-day IUD placement. Call ahead to ensure your practice or a partner clinic has capacity for an urgent insertion. Many Planned Parenthood centers have walk-in or same-day urgent slots for emergency IUD insertion.

Paragard (copper IUD) is effective for 5 days as emergency contraception and then continues to work as highly effective (>99%) ongoing contraception for up to 10 years.

Implementing Advance Prescribing Into Your Practice

The most effective prevention of emergency access barriers is advance prescribing. At annual well-woman visits and any contraceptive counseling appointment, consider:

• Offering advance prescriptions for ella to all reproductive-age patients who want it
• Recommending patients keep a generic levonorgestrel product at home (4-year shelf life, ~$10–15 online)
• Including your office's after-hours instructions for EC requests in patient intake materials
• Providing a list of telehealth services patients can use nights and weekends

Key Patient Counseling Points

When dispensing or prescribing emergency contraception, brief patients on:

• EC pills prevent pregnancy but will not terminate an existing pregnancy
• Sooner is better—each hour reduces efficacy
• If vomiting occurs within 2 hours (Plan B) or 3 hours (ella), the dose should be repeated
• A pregnancy test is warranted if the next period is more than 1 week late
• Severe lower abdominal pain 3–5 weeks post-EC should prompt ectopic pregnancy evaluation

For more on the clinical landscape in 2026, see what providers need to know about emergency contraception availability in 2026.