study of continuance rate and related causes of discontinuance of pregnancy prevention methods among women in yazd

introduction: from maturity to menopause, women are worried about pregnancy. abstinence from sex or use of pregnancy prevention methods are choices for them. as abstinence is impossible, the only remaining choice is use of pregnancy prevention methods. effective control of pregnancy is really essential for the health of mother and infant and also control of unplanned increase in population. regarding the importance of continuance rate of pregnancy prevention methods (ocp, iud, condom &dmpa;) & the reasons for their disruption, this study was carried out with the aim of determining the continuance rate and reasons for discontinuance of pregnancy prevention methods in yazd women. methods: this was a cross-sectional study. six urban health care centers of yazd were selected as study clusters and information of 15-49 year old women using the pregnancy prevention methods (ocp, iud, condom& injection) was collected via a questionnaire. the data collected was analyzed by coplan- mayer statistic method and variance analysis test. results: pregnancy prevention methods were most prevalent in the 25-34 years old age group (57%). mean duration of pregnancy prevention method usage was 27.98 months using caplan-mayer method with a median of 24 months. 86.3% for 6 months, 72.8% for 12 months, 62.5% for 18 months, 47.9% for 24 months, 39.9% for 30 months and 37% for 37 months had used four certain methods of pregnancy prevention (ocp, iud, condom and injection). the reasons of discontinuance were disease (15.6%) for ocps, bleeding (27%) for iud, unwanted pregnancy (21%) for condoms and also disease (75%) for injection method. discussion: according to the results, not only education programs regarding family planning before starting each pregnancy prevention method to women is recommended, but a complete incentive consultation about these methods is essential. this educational & consultation programs should be implemented initially for women using ocp method.