BACKGROUND Globally, unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) persist as a significant threat to women's reproductive health. In Nigeria, despite huge resources committed to family planning programs by stakeholders, contraceptive use has been very low. This study aimed at unraveling the barriers to the use of modern contraceptives among women of reproductive age (15-49 yea...

BACKGROUND Post-abortion contraceptive use in India is low and the use of modern methods of contraception is rare, especially in rural areas. This study primarily compares contraceptive use among women whose abortion outcome was assessed in-clinic with women who assessed their abortion outcome at home, in a low-resource, primary health care setting. Moreover, it investigates how background char...

Women in a small coastal village in western India were asked to explain their preference for female sterilization over modern reversible contraceptive methods. Married women aged 19+ years were interviewed in six focus groups (n=60) and individually (n=15) regarding contraceptive methods and their use and side-effects. Women publicly denied contraceptive use but privately acknowledged limited u...

CONTEXT Unintended pregnancies occur far too often in the United States, and half occur when couples fail to practice contraception. Improved measures of the continuity of women's contraceptive use, nonuse and switching patterns can help identify ways to reduce unintended pregnancy. METHODS A nationally representative sample of 1,978 adult women at risk of unintended pregnancy was surveyed by...

BACKGROUND Hormonal contraceptive use may be associated with a reduction in some premenstrual symptoms, however, the evidence remains equivocal. The objectives of the present study were to investigate the associations between ethnicity and hormonal contraceptive use with premenstrual symptoms. METHODS One thousand one hundred two women participating in the Toronto Nutrigenomics and Health Stu...

Background The objective of this study is to identify factors associated with current modern contraceptive use among Angolan women. By differentiating according to age groups (15-24 and 25-49 years), this study aimed to help family planning program planners better tailor interventions to improve utilization of modern contraception. Methods A household survey was used to collect data from 1,54...

BACKGROUND Unintended pregnancies lead to unsafe abortions, which are a leading cause of preventable maternal mortality among young women in Uganda. There is a discrepancy between the desire to prevent pregnancy and actual contraceptive use. Health care providers' perspectives on factors influencing contraceptive use and service provision to young people aged 15-24 in two rural districts in Uga...

OBJECTIVE To determine American teenagers' awareness of and knowledge about emergency contraceptive pills and their likelihood to use them. METHODS We conducted a nationally representative telephone survey between March 28, 1996, and May 5, 1996, of 1510 teenagers (757 girls and 753 boys), aged 12 to 18 years, living in the continental United States in households with telephones. The sample o...

This qualitative study explored knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of sexual and reproductive health, focusing specifically on contraceptive use and HIV prevention among young unmarried men and women, 17-21 years, in urban Karachi, Pakistan. The main theme, identified as underlying meaning in the focus group discussions was "Societal norms and perceptions create barriers to knowledge...

BACKGROUND Previous studies convincingly showed an increase in risk of breast cancer associated with current or recent use of oral contraceptives from the 1960s to 1980s. The relation of contemporary oral contraceptive formulations to breast cancer risk is less clear. METHODS We assessed lifetime oral contraceptive use and the specific formulations used among 116,608 female nurses ages 25 to ...