Contraceptive Method Switching in the United States

Volume 34, Number 3, May/June 2002 Significant proportions of U.S. women switch contraceptive methods. Indeed, when all method-related reasons for stopping use are considered, two-year discontinuation rates are as high as 90% for some methods; rates are particularly high among unmarried women.1 As a result, the rate of method switching is the primary determinant of the prevalence of use of specific contraceptives. Further, because changing methods generally alters a woman’s level of contraceptive protection, method switching has direct implications for preventing unintended pregnancy. Despite its critical role in fertility regulation, U.S. women’s method switching behavior has received little attention from researchers. In this article, we help fill this gap and address the “long-standing need to move research beyond analyzing static measures of contraceptive use and to consider the behavioral process as a whole.”2 Specifically, we examine married and unmarried women’s rates of movement among method types, and explore how women’s characteristics affect their risk of changing methods.