NuvaRing® improves quality of life-results from a clinical experience program in Spain

I Lete Lasa

Hospital Santiago Apóstol, Gynecology Department, Vitoria, Spain

Background The choice, effectiveness and acceptability of a method of contraception largely depends on how that particular method affects users' general quality of life (QoL) in addition to their sex lives.

Objective To evaluate whether the use of NuvaRing®, the monthly contraceptive ring, affected users' QoL.

Methods A total of 896 Spanish women attending their family planning centre, hospital or private centre to request contraceptive advice were recruited to this 6-month observational, multi-centre, prospective, open study. On study completion, women were asked whether their QoL had improved, taking into account the method of contraception they were using beforehand. Women with improved QoL were then asked to choose from the following options to indicate which aspect(s) had contributed the most to the improvement: a greater feeling of safety, a feeling that they had greater control of their life, a more discreet method, an improvement in their state of physical and mental health, an improvement in sex, an improvement in family relationships, greater enjoyment from life, all of the above and/or other aspects.

Results Of the 805 women (mean age = 29 ± 6 years) who started using NuvaRing®, 722 (90%) completed cycle 3 and 595 (74%) completed cycle 6. Overall, 80% of women said that their QoL had improved after using the ring. The reasons that contributed most to the improvement were "a greater feeling of safety" followed by "a greater feeling of control of their lives". Women switching to NuvaRing® from another hormonal contraceptive (HC) method found the ring to be more discreet than those who had previously not used HC (9.4% vs 5.3%, respectively). Similarly, "an improvement in sex" was cited by more women who were new to HC compared with those who had switched from another HC method (13.2% vs 4.2%, respectively), as one of the most important reasons for their improved QoL.

Conclusions The results show that NuvaRing® improved women's QoL, particularly by increasing women's feeling of safety and of being in control of their lives.