The Reasons of Discontinuing the Use of Contraceptive Methods
6 Pages Posted: 19 Jul 2016 Last revised: 29 Jul 2016
Date Written: June 30, 2016
Abstract
The family planning programs of Bangladesh has been considered to be an example of a successful program with a setting without a high level of socio-economic development. However, Contraception is the most important determinant contributing largely to fertility decline and some other related issues. Therefore, contraceptive prevalence has been used as an indicator to evaluate the implementation of family planning programs in the country. In the early stage of an implementation of the program, its focus was to motivate couples to adopt contraception, which is a proximate determinant of fertility control, to increase the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR). The impact of contraceptive use on fertility depends upon its continuity, knowledge of contraception, client’s experience, and perception and attitudes towards contraception. The reverse relationship of CPR and TFR (Total Fertility Rate) is well established in the literature and to uphold the further decline of TFR, a key concern for family planning programs is the rate at which users discontinue use of contraception and the reasons for such discontinuation. Since contraceptive use has increased, contraceptive discontinuation has become a major concern for the professionals involved to the field of population management to make it sustainable. Apparently, there is a lot of study on the prevalence rate of contraceptive among couples, but not sufficient knowledge about the reasons why couples do not use contraceptives even if they are motivated to limit family size, why couple switches the method used, and why they give up the contraceptives after using some days or a period. This implies that the study of discontinuation of contraceptive use, along with the associated factors for such discontinuation, becomes important that would have further implications for continuing the success of family planning programs in Bangladesh. The study investigates the reasons for married women not continuing specific method of contraceptives in Sylhet division of Bangladesh. They study was conducted in 2007. The findings suggest that the reason for discontinuation of contraceptive use were several side effects like heavy bleeding, spotting, anemia, weakness, irregular menstruation, burning sensation, and blood clot in the abdomen. The study recommends further emphasis on quality of care, as well as providing supplementary vitamins to the vulnerable groups to overcome the effects of malnutrition. It is also found that, discontinuation is highest for the method pill and the dominant reasons for this are side effects. The other reasons for the discontinuation of contraceptives are method related problems, method failure, infrequent sex, discomfort and some perceived negativity of methods.
Keywords: Contraceptive, CPR, Discontinuation, Family planning, TFR
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