Evidence-based family planning: the paradigm for the third millennium.

Evidence-based medicine applies clinical epidemiology to the care of the individual patient. In contrast, autocratic or authoritarian medicine rests largely on expert opinion and clinical tradition. The need for evidence-based medicine in family planning practice is acute, as counselling for intrauterine devices and tubal sterilization attests. Two international evidence-based guidelines in family planning, both published in 1996, represent a major advance in clinical practice. In addition, the Cochrane Collaboration, a global effort to identify and synthesize randomized controlled trials in medicine, now includes topics on fertility regulation. Evidence-based clinical guidelines and Cochrane systematic reviews are valuable tools for family planning practice. The use of evidence-based medicine will improve clinical care today, and, more importantly, in the millennium which is just beginning.