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  • Title: What do women use when they stop using the pill?
    Author: Pratt WF, Bachrach CA.
    Journal: Fam Plann Perspect; 1987; 19(6):257-66. PubMed ID: 3436413.
    Abstract:
    Current use of oral contraceptives among currently married women aged 15-44 declined from 25 percent to 13 percent between 1973 and 1982, while ever-use increased from 60 percent to 80 percent. By 1982, the pill appeared to be used mainly to delay first pregnancies, secondarily to space subsequent conceptions, and only rarely as a means of ending childbearing. Most women who had stopped using the pill by 1982 had done so on their own initiative: Only about one-third had been advised by a doctor to discontinue use. Virtually all former users gave some physical problem connected with pill use as a reason for quitting the method. At the time they quit, former users had been taking the pill for an average of 3.2 years. The decline in current use of the pill during the 1970s coincided with a marked increase in contraceptive sterilization, but was not the result of a direct switching from the pill to sterilization by individual women. Only 21 percent of women who quit the pill chose sterilization as their next method. The majority--60 percent--switched to nonpermanent methods, the condom being the most popular in all age-groups; the proportions selecting the condom as their next method ranged from 20 percent of 15-19-year-olds to 12 percent of 30-44-year-olds. Nineteen percent of former pill users did not adopt any method after discontinuing the pill. Current use of oral contraceptives (OC) among currently married US women aged 15-44 declined from 25% to 13% between 1973 and 1982, while ever-use increased from 60 to 80%. By 1980, the pill appeared to be used mainly to delay 1st pregnancies, 2nd to space subsequent conceptions and only rarely as a means of ending childbearing. Most women stopped at their own initiative, 1/3 were advised by their physicians. Almost all former users (who as a group had been taking OCs for an average of 3.2 years) gave a physical problem connected with quitting. 21% of the women who quit OCs chose sterilization as their next method. 60% switched to nonpermanent methods, with the condom being most popular in all age groups. 19% of former users did not adopt any method after discontinuing OCs. Over 1/2 adopted a new method without any break in contraceptive use. 20% had some break in use but were not exposed to the risk of unintended pregnancy. 27% were exposed and went unprotected for some time after quitting. By 1982 the proportion of women who switched to sterilization rose to 30%, while those using nonpermanent methods fell to 29%. Among white married women who stopped OC use in 1979 or later, 6% of those who had switched to IUDs or sterilization had unintended pregnancies, 23% of those who chose periodic abstinence or withdrawal became pregnant. 10% who adopted their next method within the same month became pregnant as compared to 26% who had a break in contraceptive use.
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