Patient Opinions About Foreign Body Contraceptives.

Womens Health Rep (New Rochelle)

Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

Published: October 2020

Prior studies have noted patient reluctance to use contraceptive devices that require insertion into their bodies. We sought to better understand this "foreign body" concern, as well as to clarify how women perceive long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) devices compared with other implanted medical devices. We performed semistructured qualitative individual interviews with female obstetric/gynecologic patients and probed their opinions regarding LARC devices. Trained coders analyzed interview content using an inductive iterative approach and identified key themes. We found three major themes in our analysis. First, women frequently expressed uncertainty about where in the body intrauterine devices reside and the impact of a foreign body in that space. Second, women expressed discomfort with the invisibility of the device itself and the "set and forget" feature of LARCs. Finally, when asked to consider contraceptive devices in the context of other implantable medical devices, patients highlighted that contraceptive devices are elective and have alternative options. When women express concerns about contraceptive devices "up in them," they are expressing concerns about how these devices interact with their anatomy and the possibilities of harm and failure. These perceived risks of LARCs may not compare favorably with other contraceptive methods that are not foreign bodies. Understanding this perspective improves our ability to participate in shared decision-making.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7784815PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/whr.2020.0048DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

contraceptive devices
16
devices
10
foreign body
8
larc devices
8
medical devices
8
contraceptive
5
patient opinions
4
opinions foreign
4
body contraceptives
4
contraceptives prior
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!