The attitude towards emergency contraception in women having legal
abortion
C. Vasiliu, D. Protopopescu, M. Carstoiu, A. Zguri, V. Horhoianu
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Emergency Hospital
Bucharest, Romania
Introduction: Despite the fact that it was introduced in practice some
decades ago, emmergency contraception remains an insufficiently known and used
method of contraception. Its advantages and indications are unknown for the
majority of population in our country.
Aims and methods: Our prospective study tries to asses the attitude
towards emmergency contraception of women having a legal abortion. For this
purpose we used a questionnaire study applied to 107 women attending our clinic
for legal abortion.
Results: Most of the patients were under 30 years old (68%),
represented urban population (66%) with low instruction level, had at least one
child (70%) and one legal abortion (90%) in antecedents and have used a
contraceptive method in the past (68%). Only 29 of the 107 women interviewed
(27%) were informed about the existence of emmergency contraception and only 3
of them had successfully used the method. The 26 remaining didnt use the method
because they were informed to late or incorrectly about the method. The main
sourse of information were other women and not the mass-media or the medical
personnel. Asked if they would use such a method, 78 (73%) were affirmative. The
causes of the underuse of emmergency contraception are: few women are aware of
it, few doctors and nurses inform the patients about it, most of the information
received from other patients are incorrect, the information in mass-media are
insufficient.
Conclusions: The emmergency contraception is a method highly
acceptable among women having legal abortion, but underused because of the luck
of information about it.
