| |
Tailoring contraception to suit different patient groups
A woman’s ideal contraceptive will depend upon a number of clinical, demographic, and sociological factors. With this in mind, the World Health Organization (WHO) recruited an Expert Working Group to investigate each of the principal contraceptive options, and issued guidance to enable clinicians and patients to make informed contraceptive choices which are safe, efficacious, and mutually beneficial.1
As part of its main findings, the WHO Expert Working Group made the following five general recommendations which were considered universally relevant to the initiation and follow-up of all contraceptive method use:1
- Clients should be given adequate information in order to make an informed, voluntary choice of a contraceptive method. Information given to clients to help them make this choice should at least include: understanding of the relative effectiveness of the method; correct use of the method; how it works; common side-effects; health risks and benefits of the method; signs and symptoms that would necessitate a return to the clinic; information on return to fertility after discontinuing method use; and information on STI protection.
- For those methods that require surgical approaches, insertion, fitting and/or removal by a trained health provider (sterilization, implants, IUDs, diaphragms, cervical caps), appropriately trained personnel in adequately equipped facilities must be available in order for those methods to be offered, and appropriate infection prevention procedures must be followed.
- Adequate and appropriate equipment and supplies need to be maintained and held in stock (for example, contraceptive commodities, equipment and supplies for infection prevention procedures).
- Service providers should be provided with guidelines (or client cards or other screening tools) to enable them to screen clients appropriately for conditions in which use of certain contraceptive methods would carry unacceptable health risks.
- Service providers must be trained in providing family planning counseling to help clients make informed and voluntary decisions about their fertility. Counseling is a key element in quality of care and is also an important part of both initiation and follow-up visits and should respond to clients' needs not only in contraception but also related to sexuality and the prevention of STIs, including infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Further information.
For a full copy of the document, please follow the following link: http://www.who.int »
References
- World Health Organization (2004) Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use. Available at: http://www.who.int/reproductive-health
/publications/mec/mec.pdf. Accessed on 19 April 2007.
|
|
|
|
|
|
