# Improving emergency contraceptive effectiveness in obese women

> **NIH NIH R01** · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $324,781

## Abstract

PROJECT ABSTRACT
Emergency contraception (EC) provides a woman with an additional line of defense against
unintended pregnancy following an act of unprotected intercourse. Orally-dosed EC works by
delaying ovulation and reduces the risk of pregnancy for a single act of unprotected intercourse
by 50-70%. Unfortunately, obese women are significantly more likely than their normal BMI
counterparts to experience failure of orally-dosed EC and in some instances EC is equivalent to
placebo.
 Our preliminary data provides evidence for testing a dose escalation strategy in an effort to
provide improved efficacy from orally-dosed EC in obese women. We hypothesize that
increasing the dose of orally-dosed EC agents will normalize the pharmacokinetics resulting in
the expected treatment effect (delay in follicle rupture) in obese women. In this proposal, we
plan to perform detailed pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies of ulipristal acetate-
based EC in obese women and expand upon our preliminary findings of levonorgestrel-based
EC.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9975207
- **Project number:** 5R01HD089957-04
- **Recipient organization:** OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** ALISON B EDELMAN
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $324,781
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-12-22 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9975207

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9975207, Improving emergency contraceptive effectiveness in obese women (5R01HD089957-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9975207. Licensed CC0.

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