Shared negative experiences of long-acting reversible contraception and their influence on contraceptive decision-making: a multi-methods study.

Objectives: We explored how negative stories about long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) - defined as a firsthand negative experience with LARC shared directly with the study participant - were involved in participants' decisions about whether to use LARC following abortion, and how counseling affected the influence of negative LARC stories on contraceptive choices.

Study Design: We performed a multi-methods study, embedded within a trial examining the impact of a theory-based counseling intervention on LARC uptake post-abortion. Participants completed a baseline survey to determine the influence of negative LARC stories. We subsequently invited respondents who reported having heard negative LARC stories to participate in a semi-structured qualitative interview. We analyzed quantitative data with univariate statistics. We analyzed qualitative data using thematic content analysis.

Results: Among the 60 participants, 16 (27%) reported having heard negative LARC stories. Two of the 16 (13%) planned to initiate LARC prior to counseling, compared to 18 of 44 women (41%) who had not heard negative LARC stories (p=0.06). Prior to counseling, 69% of participants with negative LARC stories reported that these stories made them less likely to use LARC. In qualitative interviews with 9 women, we identified several key themes: (1) negative LARC stories deterred LARC use; (2) friends and family were valued informants; (3) potential side effects were important to LARC decision-making; and (4) positive and negative features of the counseling encounter influenced the effect of negative LARC stories.

Conclusions: Negative LARC stories are common among women presenting for abortion at our institution and may influence patient uptake of these methods. Implications This study uses a multi-methods approach to examine the influence of negative stories about long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) on decision-making about LARC. These findings can help providers elicit patients' needs in contraception counseling and generate hypotheses for future counseling research.