Abstract
Research aimed at understanding women's experiences accessing emergency contraception (EC) services and the extent to which providers support women's autonomous contraceptive decision making is limited. This study explores young women's experiences with contraceptive counseling when accessing EC at family planning specialty clinics that serve young adult and adolescent patients. We conducted 22 in-depth telephone interviews with women ages 15-25years who had recently accessed EC at two San Francisco Bay Area youth-serving clinics about their thoughts and experiences using and accessing contraception. We analyzed transcripts thematically, using inductive qualitative analytic methods to identify patterns across the interviews. Most respondents described their recent clinic visit to access EC positively. Specifically, they expressed appreciation about receiving comprehensive information about other methods of contraception without pressure, judgment, or the expectation that they adopt a particular method. They also pointed to the influence of prior health care experiences in which they felt pressured or judged, leading them to avoid accessing future reproductive health services. We found that young women seeking EC appreciated learning about other contraceptive methods, but do not want to feel pressured to adopt a method in addition to EC. Findings highlight the importance of respecting young women's contraceptive decisions for building and maintaining provider trust and suggest that contraceptive counseling approaches that prioritize specific methods may reduce some young women's trust in providers and use of reproductive health services.
Highlights
We present the salient themes related to respondents’ experiences of contraceptive counseling that emerged from the interviews, which included their positive experiences of receiving comprehensive contraceptive information without pressure to use or the expectation to choose a particular ongoing method, and the influence of prior health care experiences and expectations on their reproductive health service seeking and current visit experiences
In this study of women accessing emergency contraception (EC) at two youth-serving clinics, we found that young women valued the contraceptive counseling they received when they did not feel judged or pressured to use certain methods and received guidance in selecting a method, if they wanted one
Most of the young women were pleased with their EC visit because they felt that they could make their own contraceptive decisions, and perceived the clinic staff not to be “too pushy.”
Summary
Research aimed at understanding women’s experiences accessing emergency contraception (EC) services and the extent to which providers support women’s autonomous contraceptive decision making is limited. Results: Most respondents described their recent clinic visit to access EC positively They expressed appreciation about receiving comprehensive information about other methods of contraception without pressure, judgment, or the expectation that they adopt a particular method. They pointed to the influence of prior health care experiences in which they felt pressured or judged, leading them to avoid accessing future reproductive health services. Findings highlight the importance of respecting young women’s contraceptive decisions for building and maintaining provider trust and suggest that contraceptive counseling approaches that prioritize specific methods may reduce some young women’s trust in providers and use of reproductive health services.
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