Contraceptive risk-taking among substance-using women

Abstract

Substance-using women use contraception less frequently than do women in the general population, and as a result have higher numbers of unplanned pregnancies. In addition, substance-using women regularly utilize abortion as a means for controlling their number of births. A number of factors complicate this phenomenon, including sexfor-drugs exchanges. This study analyzed data from interviews with women receiving substance abuse treatment in San Francisco, CA. Interviews explored behaviors associated with contraception and abortion as well as complicating factors surrounding prostitution. The existing literature in this area lacks theoretical insight into these behaviors. In this article, the Theory of Contraceptive Risk Taking (TCRT) is used to explore the behaviors of this sample. The TCRT predicts that contraceptive risk-taking (i.e. not using contraception) will occur after a woman navigates a series of steps in a decision-making process, including weighing costs and benefits of contraception and pregnancy, estimating her probability of becoming pregnant, and measuring her ability to obtain an abortion should her risk be unsuccessful. The participants identified many costs of contraception. The theory largely explained the behavior of this sample, except that pregnancy costs and benefits were overlooked. Implications for social work include eliminating logistical barriers to contraception and increasing benefits to contraception by offering financial incentives to use.

Long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) as harm reduction: a qualitative study exploring views of women with histories of opioid misuse

“… Explore individual perceived susceptibility to unintended pregnancy: Women who are substance users are two times more likely to get pregnant if they hold views that they are “unhealthy” or perceive that they cannot get pregnant compared with those without these views [ 20 ]. In our study, some women had perceptions of reduced susceptibility to pregnancy similar to previous studies, including beliefs that amenorrhea signified lack of ability to get pregnant and thus negated any need for contraception [ 38 ]. On the other hand, some participants in our study believed they were overly susceptible, to the point that contraception would not work for them.…”

Systematic Review of Contraceptive Use Among Sex Workers in North America

“…In two studies, researchers addressed stigma and contraceptive method use (Rocha-Jimenez et al, 2018;Terplan et al, 2018). Researchers in four articles addressed the roles of different types of sexual partners (clients and nonpaying romantic partners) and contraceptive use (Decker et al, 2012;Drescher-Burke, 2014;Rocha-Jimenez et al, 2018;Terplan et al, 2018). All researchers addressed a component of health care access such as insurance, co-location of care services at the workplace, and/or use of reproductive health care clinics.…”

A Review of Intra-arterial and Intravenous Therapies for Acute Ischemic Stroke: Relevance, Challenges and Developments

“…In the former study, there were protocol violations in about 50% of the patients receiving t-PA as compared to 33% in the latter. Although in both the studies, protocol violations were not related to symptomatic ICH, other studies have shown that these events are indeed related to each other [11][12][13]. The safety and efficacy of administration of t-PA also was demonstrated by the Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke-Monitoring Study (SITS-MOST) study [14].…”