Women's attitudes towards mechanisms of action of family planning methods: survey in primary health centres in Pamplona, Spain.
BACKGROUND
Informed consent in family planning includes knowledge of mechanism of action. Some methods of family planning occasionally work after fertilization. Knowing about postfertilization effects may be important to some women before choosing a certain family planning method. The objective of this survey is to explore women's attitudes towards postfertilization effects of family planning methods, and beliefs and characteristics possibly associated with those attitudes.


METHODS
Cross-sectional survey in a sample of 755 potentially fertile women, aged 18-49, from Primary Care Health Centres in Pamplona, Spain. Participants were given a 30-item, self-administered, anonymous questionnaire about family planning methods and medical and surgical abortion. Logistic regression was used to identify variables associated with women's attitudes towards postfertilization effects.


RESULTS
The response rate was 80%. The majority of women were married, held an academic degree and had no children. Forty percent of women would not consider using a method that may work after fertilization but before implantation and 57% would not consider using one that may work after implantation. While 35.3% of the sample would stop using a method if they learned that it sometimes works after fertilization, this percentage increased to 56.3% when referring to a method that sometimes works after implantation. Women who believe that human life begins at fertilization and those who consider it is important to distinguish between natural and induced embryo loss were less likely to consider the use of a method with postfertilization effects.


CONCLUSIONS
Information about potential postfertilization effects of family planning methods may influence women's acceptance and choice of a particular family planning method. Additional studies in other populations are necessary to evaluate whether these beliefs are important to those populations.
de Irala
Jokin
J
Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Navarra, Irunlarrea 1, 31008 Pamplona, Spain. jdeirala@unav.es
Lopez del Burgo
Cristina
C
Lopez de Fez
Carmen M
CM
Arredondo
Jorge
J
Mikolajczyk
Rafael T
RT
Stanford
Joseph B
JB
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005193:Family Planning Services / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population