Acceso a la contracepción de emergencia. Experiencia en Mollet del Vallés

Objective: To determine whether there were changes in the demand for emergency contraception (EC) in the Sexual and Reproductive Health service of Mollet del Vallés, and in the profiles of the women requesting it, after the introduction of the clinical guidelines issued by the Health Department. Subjects and methods: A cross-sectional study was designed to review all the records of the demand for EC during two periods: prior to the start of the campaign (2000-2004) and after the introduction of the clinical guidelines and the "Better without Risk" campaign (2005-2006). The records of all the women who came to the aforementioned service requesting EC were studied. They were stratified according to the variables and a descriptive analysis was carried out. Results: In all, 1,259 records were collected, out of a total of 1,537 corresponding to the two time periods. In both periods, more than half of the requests registered had been made by girls aged 21 years or younger. The demand for EC increased 71% during the second phase of the study. Most of the requests for EC took place on Monday, 43.6% during the first period and 37.3% during the second. Approximately half of the women who requested it were under 21 years of age (65% in the first phase and 59.5% in the second). The most common reason for requesting EC during both periods was the breakage or incorrect use of the condom (81.3% in the first period and 76.8% in the second). Conclusion: The increase in demand in the second period is evidence of an improvement in the accessibility of EC, which can be attributed to the "Better without Risk" campaign. There were no important differences between the first and second periods in terms of the variables analyzed.