Womens recall of requirements for oral contraception prescription in Italy

In Italy the use of oral contraceptives (OCs) is low in comparison with other countries,1 possibly because bimanual pelvic examination and laboratory tests are required before they can be prescribed. Such requirements may stop OCs being used, particularly by teenagers and young women, and so should be considered only in selected cases.2–4 We investigated the recall of these requirements by teenagers and young women in an online anonymous questionnaire on Facebook. Duplicate responses were ignored.

A total of 842 women (mean age 21.5 (SD 1.7) years) completed the questionnaire; 236 smoked cigarettes, 177 had graduated from university, and 13 were parous.

Table 1 shows the procedures required before prescription in the whole series, by prescribing doctor and by age of the woman. Overall, medical history was required in 58% of cases (95% CI 53.1 to 63.5), blood pressure in 20% (95% CI 17.1…

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