343
Views
27
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLES

Use of contraception by women with type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus: ‘It's funny that nobody really spoke to me about it’

, &
Pages 350-358 | Published online: 21 Jul 2011
 

ABSTRACT

Objectives To understand factors which promote or discourage use of contraception in women with diabetes mellitus (DM). To identify contraceptive knowledge, skills and attitudes of health professionals involved in diabetes care.

Methods The research formed part of a larger mixed methods study and included a questionnaire survey (107 women with DM) and semi-structured qualitative interviews with women with DM (n = 16) and diabetes specialists (n = 16). Analysis was by SPSS and NVivo 7.

Results Two main themes emerged: Contraceptive provision and advice and Choice of contraceptive methods. There was incongruence in views between the diabetes specialists and women with DM in relation to advice and use of contraception. Many diabetes specialists felt unqualified to give advice and saw general practitioners as contraception providers. There was low use of long-acting reversible contraceptives, and women used ‘natural’ methods in their wish to ‘avoid taking hormones or chemicals’.

Conclusions Despite awareness of the need to plan pregnancies to avoid poor outcomes, women with DM are likely to receive little advice about their contraceptive options. Contraception should evidently be a legitimate part of diabetes care and diabetes specialists require training to enable them to assist women in making their own informed choices.

acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to all the staff and women with diabetes who participated in this research study.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and the writing of the paper.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 65.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 416.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.