Family planning remains a high priority area for the United States, with goals to increase the proportion of pregnancies that are intended, reduce pregnancy rates among adolescents, and increase contraceptive use prioritized in the Healthy People 2020 objectives. Contraception intended for use after unprotected intercourse, known as emergency contraception, remains underutilized. Levonorgestrel...

Women who are regularly cycling exhibit different partner preferences than those who use hormonal contraception. Preliminary evidence appears to suggest that during pregnancy women's partner preferences also diverge from those prevalent while regularly cycling. This is consistent with the general assertion that women's mate preferences are impacted by hormonal variation. During pregnancy, women...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the knowledge of, and perception of female undergraduates in the Niger Delta of Nigeria towards Emergency Contraception. METHODS Anonymous self administered questionnaires were applied to randomly selected non-medical female undergraduates of the University of Port Harcourt in May 2005. RESULTS Six hundred questionnaires were retrieved out of 610 distributed. The respo...

This cross sectional descriptive study aimed to describe factors influencing contraceptive behavior among women aged 15-49 years, seeking induced abortion in the rural and the urban regions of Nepal. A total of 385 women (92.1% completion rate), 195 from the urban region and 190 from the rural region were analyzed. The results showed that the overall contraception use was 69.4% in the urban reg...

CONTEXT Although research has examined providers' knowledge, attitudes and prescribing behaviors with regard to emergency contraception, none has used a theory-based approach to understanding the interplay of these factors. METHODS A cross-sectional survey of 96 faculty physicians from one Southern and three Midwestern universities was conducted in 2004 to assess factors associated with inten...

OBJECTIVES Cross-sectional estimates of contraceptive use do not provide understanding of time to postpartum uptake. This paper uses a range of Malawian data sources: a prospective study to explore time to uptake of contraception and a cross-sectional survey to assess whether sexually active postpartum women whose fecundity has returned use contraception, and whether abstaining/amenorrheic wome...

BACKGROUND Unintended pregnancy remains a major challenge to the reproductive health of women especially in the developing countries. It is a major reason for unsafe abortion, a major contributor to maternal mortality. AIM This study was designed to assess the knowledge and practice of emergency contraception among female non-medical undergraduates. SUBJECTS AND METHODS In this cross sectio...

Postpartum contraception is important to prevent unintended pregnancies. Assisting women in achieving recommended inter-pregnancy intervals is a significant maternal-child health concern. Short inter-pregnancy intervals are associated with negative perinatal, neonatal, infant, and maternal health outcomes. More than 30% of women experience inter-pregnancy intervals of less than 18 months in the...

OBJECTIVE To systematically review epidemiologic evidence assessing whether hormonal contraception alters the risk of HIV transmission from an HIV-positive woman to an HIV-negative male partner. DESIGN Systematic review. METHODS We included articles published or in press through December 15, 2011. We assessed studies with direct evidence on hormonal contraception use and HIV transmission, a...

The aim of this study was to examine the pattern of attendance of patients requesting Emergency Hormonal Contraception (EHC) at an accident and emergency department before and after a government driven change in legislation, which allowed EHC to be sold over-the-counter by trained pharmacists, to women aged 16 years and above. We employed retrospective comparative study using computer records o...