Hormonal Contraceptives, Duration of Use and the Experience of Side Effects in Southern Ghana

Side effects or fear of side effects have been shown to be an important factor in the lack of adoption of contraceptive methods, particularly modern hormonal methods, however little is known about the actual experience of side effects and their influence on contraceptive use dynamics. This study aims to explore the association between the experience of side effects, the type of method, and the duration of episodes of use. This paper uses calendar data from a longitudinal survey conducted in Southern Ghana containing monthly reporting
of contraceptive use along with concurrent reporting of side effects. Descriptive statistics and single decrement life tables are used for the analysis. The result show that injectable use is most commonly associated with side effects, with 33.8% of episodes of contraceptive use being associated with the experience of side effects compared to 28.3% of pill episodes. However due to the longer length of episodes when taking into account all months of use only 9% of women-months of injection use have side effects compared to 11% of women-months of pill use. The length of pill episodes is not affected by side effects whereas for injectables the length of episodes is shorter when side effects are experienced than when they are not.