It’s not a combination that seems to make sense at first—an anti-inflammatory pain killer and an emergency contraceptive pill. But researchers report that taking a single 40 mg pill of piroxicam, an anti-inflammatory drug that’s available by prescription only, with the morning-after pill levonorgestrel can prevent pregnancy better than levonorgestrel alone.

Here’s what the study authors, based in Hong Kong and Sweden, found in study results published yesterday:

• Combining piroxicam with levonorgestrel prevented 94.7% of expected pregnancies, compared to 63.4% of expected pregnancies prevented among women getting levonorgestrel and a placebo.
• Piroxicam belongs to a class of drugs known as COX inhibitors, which, like levonorgestrel, work on prostaglandins to inhibit ovulation, the first step to pregnancy.
• The researchers support adding piroxicam to emergency contraception to further reduce pregnancy, but it’s up to regulators to greenlight the combination.

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