ARCHIVES: SPOTLIGHT: Make love, not babies: Surprising discoveries about South Africans’ popular choice of contraceptives
Dr Kim Jonas is a specialist scientist in Public Health at the South African Medical Research Council whose research focuses on women and girls aged 15 to 24. In a 2020/2021, Jonas and colleagues found that of 515 young women and girls who had been sexually active in the previous year, most were highly motivated to use contraception – and 80% reported having easy access to contraceptives.
This means that while the scheme does cover a variety of contraceptives, this comes from available day-to-day benefits and is not a ring-fenced benefit. The costs are fully covered by members if their accounts are depleted or their options insufficient. “We have very progressive, enabling policies and guidelines, which speak to contraceptive choice and the need for an expanded method mix, because research does show that the more choice you have, the more likely women are to use methods and to continue on methods as well,” she says.
Marie Stopes centres across the country provide around 5,000 women with contraceptives every quarter. Clinical Governance and Quality Director, Dr Louise Gilbert, says that one in five women choose long-term reversible methods, with the rest seeking shorter-term options like pills, injections or patches. She explains that this popularity is a longer-term trend.
But, while there was a push towards IUD usage and information, the usage has stayed low. Overall, it appears that shorter-term methods remain more popular, even while longer-term options are becoming more accessible. Pleaner says there are many misconceptions by staff around some of these methods. “For me, those are some of the issues which create barriers to contraceptive use, which means that staff [members] go back to a default position of the tried-and-tested method, which is the injectable.”
Marie Stopes encounters nervousness about IUDs in terms of pain or the device being noticeable, as well as their effects on periods, says Gilbert. She dispels these worries but urges women to inform themselves about side effects. Jonas says that school-based interventions focused on contraceptives and adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health and rights could be helpful, including in preventing sexual violence.
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