Types of Birth Control Available in Korea

Updated 21 September 2016

There really are a lot of birth control options available here in Korea. If you're looking to breastfeed, you have to be careful about estrogen that is in some birth control pills. The mini pill isn't available here, but there are pills with low amounts of estrogen. Most lactation consultants advise waiting at least 8 weeks after giving birth (though 12 weeks is ideal) to start taking birth control pills with estrogen. The reason for this is that it can affect your milk supply.

If you are trying to breastfeed remember that there is a lot of English speaking help available out there here in Korea. Here's a list of birthing professionals in Korea who can help you.

Birth Control Options Available in Korea

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Here are what people use as birth control (preventing getting pregnant and/or terminating an early pregnancy) methods here in Korea. TCOYF by Toni Weschler (Taking Charge of Your Fertility) is an amazing book with information on how to get pregnant and how to avoid getting pregnant. It's the leading book on fertility and women's reproductive health. Whether you think these options are right or wrong is up to you, I'm just letting you know what options are out there.

Some of these methods are more effective than others, so please do your research accordingly! Perfect-use failure rate is very different than typical-use failure rate. Some are permanent, others are not. Some need to be done daily, others months, others yearly. Some will require a visit to a doctor or pharmacy, others can be done on your own. Here are some hospitals and clinics in Korea.

Medical and Barrier Methods

• Abortion
• Cervical caps
• Condoms, male
• Diaphragms
• Implants (such as Implanon or Jadelle)
• Injections (such as Depro)
• IUD, Cooper 
• IUD, Hormonal (such as Mirena or Skylar)
• NuvaRing
• Patch
• Pill, birth control (피임약) Here's a list of what's available in Korea. You can buy birth control in bulk so many women just stock up here. In addition to the ones listed on the link you can now also find Alesse (에이리스), Meliane (멜리안), Minivlar (미니버러), and Qlaira. Birth control pills are usually 6,000-10,000 won and many are available over-the-counter. Yaz and Yasmin (yes, they are different) are not available over the counter and require a prescription. They cost about 30,000.
• Pill, morning after 
• Tubal ligation
• Vasectomy

Natural Family Planning Methods 
You should also read, TCOYF by Toni Weschler (Taking Charge of Your Fertility) since many of these options are discussed in the book. 

• Apps for smartphones (SheKnows and ABC News have lists of good ones)
• Basal Body Temperature (Use a thermometer to take your BBT (basal body temperature). 
• Breastfeeding (Lactation Amenorrhea Method (LAM) and Ecological Breastfeeding)
• Calendar Methods (Rhythm Method and Standard Days Method)
• Fertility Monitoring (such as Baby-Comp, Clearblue (Easy) Fertility Monitor, Lady-Comp, Marquette Method, OvaCue, OvaGraph (it's FREE!), Ovulation Prediction Kits (OPK), Persona, and Sympto-Thermal )
• Mucus Methods (Billings, Creighton, and TwoDay Methods)
• Salivia Ovulation Predictor Tests (such as Fertile-Focus*)
• Sympto-Thermal Method (Combines mucus and temperature methods. See NFP and the Couple to Couple League for more info)
• Withdrawal method

Sources: Mothering and Wikipedia.


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