Canadian women can slip in a little contraceptive sponge before sex.
European women have access to a hormone-releasing IUD that prevents pregnancy for five years, dramatically lowers menstrual blood loss and even is touted to shrink fibroids. Don't look for such options in a U.S. pharmacy yet, but they may be coming in a few years. Critics say the United States has been left behind as other countries embrace new contraceptives that provide women more choices in birth control. More than half a dozen new options deemed important by family planning experts sell abroad but not here. The last unique contraceptive to win U.S. approval was the female condom in 1993.