The Medical eligibility criteria for contraceptive use (MEC) sixth edition, presents current World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations on the safety of various contraceptive methods for use in the context of specific health conditions and physiologically relevant characteristics. The MEC sixth edition has over 2000 recommendations for 25 family planning methods with 112 new or updated recommendations. For each medical condition or medically relevant characteristic, contraceptive methods are placed into one of four numbered categories with category 1 and 2 indicating that the client can generally use the method while MEC category 3 and 4 indicate that the client should generally not use the method. The MEC serves as a companion guideline to the fourth edition of the Selected practice recommendations for contraceptive use (SPR) which provides recommendations on how to use contraceptive methods safely and effectively once their eligibility has been established. Together these documents constitute the global normative family planning guidelines and may be adapted by member states towards improving the quality of family planning services.