Disclaimer: None of the information in this article constitutes medical advice, and is just the opinion of the writer(s). We recommend that patients follow their doctor’s guidance in regard to birth control and family planning.
Vienva is a prescription birth control medication. It’s a combination contraceptive which means it’s comprised of two separate drugs: levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol.
But is Vienva proven to be effective in clinical studies as a contraceptive? What percentage of women use the drug and still become pregnant? How does Vienva compare to other birth control methods like IUDs? And how do real users rate and describe the effects of Vienva?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we review clinical studies on Vienva to determine how effective the drug is at reducing pregnancy.
We'll discuss potential side effects of the drug, compare its efficacy to other birth control methods and feature unsponsored Vienva patient reviews.
Does Vienva Fully Prevent Pregnancy?
Vienva has been studied in many clinical trials for its effects on pregnancy rates.
A medical review on the efficacy of Vienva, published in the Drugs journal, found that the medication was effective for preventing pregnancy.
The study authors noted that in a trial with over 26,000 patient cycles, only 18 women became pregnant, and 6 of these pregnancies were due to non-adherence (such as forgetting to take the pill). This is a 0.07% failure rate per cycle including pregnancies due to user error.
The researchers noted that the medication was especially effective in women at or over the age of 35, with only one pregnancy in nearly 4,000 evaluable cycles.
A 2009 clinical trial evaluated the effectiveness of Vienva taken on a continuous basis versus Vienva taken on a cyclical basis.
Unsurprisingly, the medication was more effective when taken continuously. 323 women were enrolled in the trial and not a single one became pregnant when the drug was used continuously. The study authors concluded that Vienva was a “safe and effective oral contraceptive.”
A research review mirrored the results from the other trials cited in this section.
Vienva was found to be effective at preventing pregnancy, with a statistically significant reduction in pregnancies over the course of the trial.
We will conclude from the available research that Vienva is effective at significantly reducing pregnancy rates, and appears especially effective when used continuously without any lapses.
Does Vienva Cause Side Effects?
The drug label for Vienva has a boxed warning, shown above, indicating a risk of severe side effects from smoking cigarettes while using the drug.
It's important that women who are unable to quit smoking entirely while using Vienva speak with their doctor about alternative birth control medications that may not have such a negative interaction with smoking.
A medical review published in the Contraception journal evaluated the side effects of the active ingredient in Vienva.
The dosage used was around 50% higher than in Vienva, so the frequency and intensity of the reported side effects are likely to be more severe than those experienced by Vienva patients.
The most common reported side effects were vertigo and headache, experienced by 58% of patients. Painful menstruation was experienced by 44.8% of patients, and gastrointestinal complaints like bloating and pain were experienced by 43.4% of patients.
The previously-cited Drugs research review on Vienva reported a significantly lower incidence of side effects.
14% of women reported headache, 8% of women reported uterine bleeding, 7% of women reported painful menstruation and 7% of women reported nausea.
Since the Drugs study used the exact dosage of active ingredients as in Vienva, we would consider these results more likely to be accurate and indicative of the risk of side effects.
Real People Try Vienva
A TikTok creator named Jess claims to have experienced side effects from Vienva:
@jessxadanielle I know Vienva & birth control in general affects everyone differently, but this has been my experience getting off #vienva #birthcontrol ♬ original sound - Jess
A TikTok creator named Natalie Brandenburg also claims to have experienced side effects from Vienva:
@nataliebrandenburg__ anyone else experienced this? #birthcontrol #vienva #birthcontroloptions #birthcontrolpill #menstralcycle #periodtips ♬ Can't Be By Myself - Lowswimmer & Squirrel Flower
Vienva vs. Other Birth Control Methods
Vienva is likely to have similar efficacy to other oral contraceptives, because hormonal contraceptives have similar biological effects.
A medical review on the comparative efficacy of oral contraceptives found that Vienva has similar efficacy to other oral birth control pills, and that its failure rate was 0.3% with perfect use and 8% with typical use.
“Perfect use” refers to the practice of using the medication exactly as described on the label. A patient who used the medication daily without skipping a day would be using this drug “perfectly” and significantly reducing their chance of pregnancy.
“Typical use” is a medical classification that allows for human error. Many patients forget to take the drug some days, and this increases the chance of drug failure and pregnancy.
The huge gap in effectiveness between perfect use and typical use is why long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) methods are more successful at preventing pregnancy than oral medications.
As we discussed at length in our Nexplanon reviews article, LARC devices are simply more effective because the average person will forget to take their oral contraceptive some of the time, and these devices prevent this type of human error because they’re implanted into the body.
LARC devices like intrauterine devices (IUDs) are proven in medical research to be around 20x more effective than oral contraceptives.
Patients Rate Vienva
Drugs.com is a website that allows prescription medication patients to rate and review the drugs they're taking.
We cannot verify the accuracy or authenticity of any reviews on this site.
Vienva has been reviewed over 300 times on Drugs.com, and has an average rating of 4.6 out of 10 at the time of updating this article.
A top positive review comes from a user called “ABvienva” who gave the drug a 10/10 rating, and claims it was effective without any side effects:
“So now I’ve been on it for over a month and have literally felt no changes to my body or mental health. No side affects and just a light, short 1st period. I know everyone is different but I‘ve had a positive experience.”
A top negative review is written by a user named “Rachel” who gave the drug a 1/10 rating, and who claims the medication significantly worsened their mood:
“this is not worth it. By the time I got to the peach pills my emotions have been through the roof. I cry over the smallest things and have the worst mood swings on it.”
Medical Experts Discuss Vienva
One of the most popular YouTube videos on Vienva comes from a channel called “Pandia Health” and features an MD discussing Vienva and answering popular patient questions:
How Does Vienva Work?
Vienva is effective because it inhibits ovulation, which is the process of an egg being released from the ovaries.
Ovulation is required for conception, so by inhibiting this biological process it’s possible to significantly reduce the chance of pregnancy.
As noted in one of the research reviews cited earlier in this article, Vienva has a secondary biological effect which further reduces risk of pregnancy: the medication causes “a thickening of cervical mucus (making sperm entry into the uterus more difficult).”
Ovarian activity also appears to be suppressed by oral intake of Vienva. The size of ovarian follicles (which contain eggs) are reduced, and progesterone levels (a hormone which prepares the uterus for pregnancy) are also reduced.
Clearly, Vienva causes a multitude of changes in the body which reduce the chances of pregnancy, making it a prime candidate for an oral contraceptive.
Vienva Dosage
The dosage of Vienva appears to be 0.1 milligrams (mg) of levonorgestrel and 0.02 mg of ethinyl estradiol according to a large medical distributor.
However, the dosage of this medication is hard to conclusively determine because we cannot locate an official manufacturer website, which is an issue we’ve never before encountered with pharmaceutical medication.
We would recommend that patients considering Vienva speak with their doctor about appropriate dosage, because a doctor may have access to information from the drug manufacturer that regular consumers do not.
Most of the medical studies cited in this article used the doses referenced above, but there are also some studies using 50% higher doses (0.15 mg levonorgestrel and 0.03 mg ethinyl estradiol).
It’s unclear if this higher dose is available for prescription in the US, so we would recommend that patients ask their doctor about this dose if they feel as though Vienva isn’t working for them at a lower dose.
