Awareness of young women about emergency contraception in the temporal aspect

Abstract

Introduction. Bearing in mind functional features of the reproductive system at every stage of a woman’s life, as it grows and develops, accomplishes its purpose and early fades away, its high vulnerability becomes obvious. Therefore, what emerges is the need for a broader analysis of the causes of reproductive dysfunction, among which termination of unwanted pregnancies plays one of the leading roles.Aim. To assess the level of awareness of emergency contraception among young women.Materials and methods. We conducted an anonymous voluntary survey on the awareness of the emergency contraception methods among different age groups of young people in 2014 and 2021. In 2014, 577 respondents participated in the survey, which were divided into two groups. Group 1 included 265 adolescent girls aged 15 to 17 years, group 2 included young women aged 18 to 25 years. In 2021, an anonymous voluntary survey was only conducted among 348 young female respondents.Results. Analysis of responses from the survey of adolescents and young girls conducted in 2014 shows an extremely low level of awareness of the emergency contraception methods among respondents in both groups. Thus, 211/265 (79.62%) in the group of adolescent girls and 201/312 (64.42%) young women did not know anything about the emergency contraception methods, and 19/312 (6.09%) young women and 9/265 (3.40%) adolescent girls claimed knowledge of the possibilities of emergency contraception using Escapelle. The analysis of a similar survey conducted in 2021 showed that young women’s awareness of modern emergency contraceptive methods had increased. Thus, less than half of 168/348 (48.28%) participants did not know anything about the emergency contraception methods in 2021, and 117/348 (33.62%) respondents were aware of Escapelle, which was 5.5 times more compared with those of 2014.Conclusions. The results of two surveys we conducted reveal insufficient awareness of the emergency contraceptive methods among young women.