Editorial policy

Every health fact on this site should be checkable. Here is where our facts come from, how we keep prices current, and what we will not publish.

Our sourcing hierarchy

When sources disagree, we follow the one higher on this list.

1. International clinical guidance: the World Health Organization (Family Planning Handbook, Medical Eligibility Criteria, fact sheets), the UK NHS and FSRH, and the European Medicines Agency.
2. Systematic reviews and studies: Cochrane reviews and peer-reviewed research on PubMed.
3. Philippine regulators and government: FDA Philippines, the Department of Health, PhilHealth, and the laws and court decisions that apply (RA 10918, RA 10354, Imbong v. Ochoa). We use these for what is legal, registered and free here.
4. Reputable Philippine reporting: news outlets and legal explainers, for events such as the 2024 prescription crackdown, clearly dated.
5. Retailer and clinic pages: for prices, "Prescription required" labels and how ordering works. Never for medical claims.

Every page lists its sources at the bottom, with inline markers next to the facts they support. If we cannot find a source for something, we do not guess: the page shows a visible [TODO] marker until we do.

How we check prices

• Every peso figure on the site comes from a single price list. Each entry records the retailer, the page we checked, the pack size and the date we checked it.
• We recheck prices every month from public retailer websites (such as Watsons, TGP, Rose Pharmacy and Hati) and keep a monthly snapshot so changes can be tracked.
• Pages show the month prices were last checked. The current prices were checked in October 2026.
• Where a retailer has no public online price (Mercury Drug and Southstar Drug), we say so rather than estimate.
• Prices from older reports are labelled with their date. Clinic fees vary by doctor and city, so we show them as examples, not promises.
• No retailer or partner can pay to change a price or its position in a table. See how we make money.

How we use Reddit and other forums

We read Philippine Reddit communities (such as r/AskPinay, r/PCOSPhilippines and r/adultingph) to learn which questions Filipinas actually ask, in their own words. That shapes our headings and FAQs.

Reddit is experience, never evidence. When we mention a forum post, we say so ("Filipinas on Reddit report...") and link the thread as a source. We never use a forum post to support a medical claim, and we never link threads about abortion pills or medicine sellers. Usernames are not shown.

Rules for every page

• A pill brand is always shown with its generic name the first time it appears on a page.
• We do not use promotional claims like "the top pill", "zero side effects" or "works for everyone". Prescription medicines have real trade-offs.
• Emergency contraception pages are information only. We never publish emergency contraception doses or timings; we send you to a doctor.
• No abortion content.
• Content for teenagers is educational and points to parents, school nurses and health centers.
• Every page ends with the same reminder: talk to a doctor before starting, stopping or switching birth control.
• Images of people are labelled as illustrative. We never present an illustration or a generated image as a real patient, doctor or reviewer.

Update dates are real

The date at the top of a page is the date we last reviewed it. We only change that date when someone has actually rechecked the page against its sources, not to look fresh. Price dates come from when the prices were actually checked. Until a medical reviewer is signed, pages say "Editorially reviewed", not "medically reviewed". See the medical review policy.

Corrections

If you find an error, email hello@birthcontrolphilippines.com with the page and what is wrong. We check every report against the sources and fix confirmed errors as quickly as we can.