Family planning participants spurn comfy contraceptives

JAKARTA (JP): Despite complaints about discomfort and health problems caused by contraceptives, many women are still reluctant to change methods, according to experts.

Chairman of the Indonesian Planned Parenthood Association Kartono Mohamad said there were psychological reasons why women chose to endure discomfort rather than switch to less painful birth control methods.

Many women prefer to use the pill, despite doctors' warnings of its side-effects, rather than having doctors insert intra- uterine-devices (IUDs), he pointed out.

"Pills are easier to use, of course," he said.

According to a 1995 survey by the National Coordinating Family Planning Board, the pill and injections are still the most popular contraceptive methods, with each accounting for 32 percent of the total 23 million women in the program.

Of the total participants, 22 percent used IUDs, another eight percent used implants and six percent had been sterilized.

Kartono said doctors are obligated to advise women about the side effects of each contraceptive method. "These side effects differ from one woman to another, depending on their health," he said.

Nursing women, for instance, should avoid the pill because it causes breast-milk production to decrease. Women with hypertension should also avoid the pill because their hormonal content affects blood circulation.

Women who smoke and use the pill face a ten times greater risk of having a heart attack than those who don't, he said.

Social psychologist Mochamad Ramdhan said women prefer the pills to other methods because there's a widespread opinion that the pill is a "modern" contraceptive.

"Women who use the pill see themselves as more modern than those who use other methods such as IUDs," the lecturer at the University of Indonesia's School of Psychology said. "Sometimes, they even see the alternative methods as old-fashioned.

"Some women associate this 'being modern' with better social status," he said. The women know the health problems or discomfort associated with the pill but use it anyway, he pointed out.

A 1990/1991 survey found that as many as 55 percent of the family planning participants had complaints about their contraceptive method. The figure rose to nearly 60 percent the following year, and to 62 percent in 1992/1993. (31)