The aim of our survey was to investigate the extent to which family physicians in Lithuanian inform their patients about possible side effects of contraceptive pills. We also aimed to examine the relation between physicians' estimation of the severity and frequency of these side effects and their willingness to inform patients spontaneously. A survey was conducted in Lithuania in 2004 using the methodology and questionnaire developed by the researchers of Department of Medical Philosophy and Clinical Theory, University of Copenhagen. A computerized stratified random sampling was drawn using the list of Territorial Sick Funds. A total of 500 family physicians have been questioned in the survey. Response rate was 64%. Family physicians (83%) informed their patients more frequently when the side effect was regarded as frequent and serious than it was regarded as rare and trivial. Only 2.9% of all the respondents would inform their patients about the all possible side effects. Half of the respondents (51%) would inform about the side effects in order to enable the patients to react appropriately to every side effect. The most common reason (29%) for not informing the patients was an effort to avoid unnecessary patients' anxiety.