Hormonal contraceptive methods using or not using in Iran

M. Rostami Dovom, F. Ramezani Tehrani, F. Hejazi, N. Peykari

National Research Center for Reproductive Health, Department of Research & Technology, MOHME, Iran

Objectives: Over the last four decades, using of contraceptives has increased in worldwide, particularly in developing countries. Traditional method is one of the most common contraceptive methods among couples. The hormonal methods side effects are the reasons of most couple for not using them. It was a community based, cross – sectioned analytic study, which has done in 4 provinces of Iran (Golestan, Bushehr, Kordestan and Tehran). By using systematic randomized sampling method, 200 clusters including 20 families (100 urban & 100 rural clusters), has been chosen.5900, 10–49 y/o married women participated and interviewed. Data by SPSS software was analyzed. Using tests were such as chi-square, spearman & so on.

Results: About 38% of eligible women used one of hormonal methods (Norplant, Minipill, OCPs and DMPA). The highest rate of using method was related to OCPs (94%). The most common side effect along OCPs in 1/3 of participants was emotional changing such as depression, nervousness that has been reported. The other most common ones were menstrual irregularities such as spotting, or amenorrhea. In spite of mentioned side effects, their reason for hormonal method using among users were reliability and curious intendancy to having another child. About 12% of women discontinued their hormonal methods for misconception factor.

Discussion: The most common hormonal method of contraceptive in our country (Iran) is OCPs, but there is not enough variety of them. It seems the existing of different kind of pills could increase the using rate. Since 12% of were interrupted their methods for misconceptions, so giving information to couples specially women and improving the quality of family planning counseling services could promote the hormonal usage and indirectly reduce the rate of unwanted pregnancy.