Hormonal Contraception in Teenager Girls. The Role of Counseling to Ensure Effective Contraceptive Use

Abstract

Teenager girls represent a particular risk group for unwanted pregnancy and abortion with important consequences on their health, school and professional education and social life. In order to avoid this problem appropriate counseling during contraceptive process is of paramount importance. Apart confi dentiality the contraceptive counselor must also demonstrate other important qualities like expertise, trustworthiness and availability. In hormonal contraception adolescents may be particularly bothered by side eff ects and it is important that they are counseled about these side eff ects prior to method initiation. Combined hormonal contraceptive methods with estrogens and progesterone are commonly used among adolescents, but the failure rate is higher compared to adult women, a possible