Adolescent and young women's experience with the vaginal ring and oral contraceptive pills.

Study Objective: To compare acceptability of the vaginal contraceptive ring to that of oral contraceptive pills.

Design: Randomized, cross-over, 6-month study.

Setting: Urban family planning clinic for young low-income patients.

Participants: Sexually active females aged 15-21 years (n = 130).

Interventions: Participants were randomly assigned to use the vaginal ring or oral contraceptive pills for an initial study interval of three 28-day cycles, followed by three cycles of the alternate method.

Main Outcome Measures: Participants completed surveys about method use, acceptability, and side effects at baseline, after three cycles, and after six cycles. We analyzed study data using ANOVA models for cross-over designs.

Results: We did not detect higher compliance with the ring as compared to oral contraceptive pills (P = 0.176), although overall approval of the ring was significantly higher on several items measured, including liked using method (P = 0.015), would recommend it to friends (P = 0.012), and not as hard to remember to use method correctly (P < or = 0.000). Participants were less worried about health risks while using the ring (P = 0.006), but reported that the ring was more likely to interfere with sex than the pill (P < or = 0.001) and that sex partners liked the pill (P = 0.034). Most women did not report bothersome side effects with either method.

Conclusions: Adolescent and young women showed favorable acceptability of the vaginal contraceptive ring compared to oral contraceptive pills.