Profile of emergency contraception users in Córdoba health district during the period 2006-2008

Objective: Identifying the profile of post-coital pillrequesters in Cordoba Health District during the period2006-2008.Methods: A cross sectional study performed duringthat period. The Field of study were women who requestthe post-coital pill at any of the centres or services inCordoba Health District. Descriptive statistics have beencarried out with the data gathered by the AndalusianHealth System from the questionnaires fulfilled in everycase when the post-coital pill is requested.Results: 3884 women have been seen. 63% ofrequesters were under 24. One in every 9 was under 16.39% of the women stated that it was not the first time thatthey took the pill. The usual contraception method morefrequently referred to has been the prophylactic (87.4%)and 6.8% state that they don’t normally use anycontraceptive method in their sexual intercourse.The most frequent reason given by the women whorequest for the post-coital pill is a broken prophylactic(70.1%) followed by a retained prophylactic inside thevagina (10.9%) although 15.1% of the women state nothaving used any contraceptive method in that particularocasion.Conclusions: The profile of the women requesting apost-coital pill in Cordoba Health District coincides withother studies carried out in our field.We have to remark the increase in the total number ofrequesters in the last 3 years, and of requesters under 16.It is worrying that 40% of the women state having takenthe post-coital pill in a previous episode, and that 15% ofthe women state that they had not taken anyprecautionary measures in their previous sexualintercourse. This makes us think that the post-coital pill isincreasingly becoming a usual contraceptive methodrather than something exceptional.Based on the above, we believe that there is a needfor a higher number of campaigns on sex educationaimed at the different profiles generated from this study.