Inclusion/exclusion criteria:
Risk management : the review aimed to establish the implementation of risk management for teratogenic medications used by women of child bearing age. Therefore, papers were included in the review if they reported the use of at least one teratogenic medication by females of child bearing age and the implementation of at least one risk minimisation measure consistent with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) drug safety programme designed to address safety concerns. Safety of teratogenic medications use is further monitored against Elements to Assure Safe Use (ETASU), see Table 1 [27, 28].
Papers focused on the following were excluded from the review: pregnancy rates while using a teratogenic medication, pregnancy outcomes after exposure to a teratogenic medication, emergency contraception, contraception due to a medical condition (medical conditions that require contraception regardless of the use of drugs), abortion or pregnancy termination, side effects of contraceptives, venous thromboembolism, teratogenic risk of contraceptives, prescription patterns during pregnancy and need for contraceptive due to HIV infection.
Perceptions of teratogenic risk : to address the aim of reviewing publications reporting how teratogenic risk of medications is perceived, papers included in the review were those reporting perceived teratogenic risk as numerical value. Studies reporting the perception of risk of non-teratogenic medications were excluded from the review.