Abstract

Background: Choosing a contraceptive method is affected to a large extent by the attitudes toward these methods. This study aimed to identify and compare the attitudes of the users toward the commonly used contraceptive methods.
Patients and Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study was carried on married women who have at least one child and attended the outpatient clinic of the Gyn/Obst Department of Sohag University Hospital in the period from February 2011 through November 2011. This was achieved by a questionnaire about the sociodemographic and reproductive data of the participant, her knowledge and use of the contraceptive methods and her attitude toward the commonly used contraceptive methods.

Results: Out of 568 participants included in the study only 251 (44.19%) were current users of a contraceptive method. 194 (77.29%) of current contraceptive users reported that the choice of the methods was primary according to their preference. The participants who were not using any type of contraception at the time of the study were characterized by being younger than 25 years and having a duration of marriage less than 10 years. Fear from side effects or complications and thinking that pregnancy can not occur during lactational amenorrhea were the commonest reasons for non use of contraceptive methods. Only 74.52% of the participants had heard of the modern contraceptive methods and about 85% of them knew at least 3 methods. The highest preference was for the combined oral contraceptive pills followed by the injectables, implants and intrauterine devices respectively and was least for progestagen only pills..

Conclusion: About one fourth of the participants did not hear about modern contraceptive methods and their preference was highest for combined oral contraceptive pills and least for progestagen only pills.
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