Contextualizing Barriers to Long-Acting Reversible Contraception

What is it about?

We conducted this study to examine barriers that women encounter when considering or accessing long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), including intrauterine devices (IUDs) and subdermal arm implants, that persist in the context of a large-scale LARC program that sought to eliminate such barriers.

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Photo by Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition on Unsplash

Photo by Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This is important because we should be aware of and prepared to address persistent barriers to improve outcomes of future interventions. For instance, access issues remain due to practice-level structures that prevent patients from obtaining LARC. Additionally, rather than the possibility or presence of side effects as barriers to LARC, we should more deeply consider how a failure to address these side effects dissuade women from LARC use. Finally, while patients are often cited as lacking knowledge about LARC, providers sometimes present limited information (due to counseling approaches that assume a baseline LARC awareness) when patients do attempt to learn more about it.