Women Urged to Use Contraceptive Jabs and Implants
by Nic Fleming

Women are to be encouraged to make more use of longer-term temporary methods of contraception in an effort to reduce unplanned pregnancies and abortions.

Guidelines issued by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) will today instruct doctors and clinics to ensure women are informed about, and offered, long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) methods such as injections and implants.

However, doctors' leaders warned that clinics which offer specialist contraception advice and train GPs are suffering disproportionately from cuts being introduced as a result of predicted NHS trust budget shortfalls totalling £2.4 billion for this year.

A recent survey of 2,750 GPs, nurses, family planning consultants, obstetricians and gynaecologists found that almost a third said their primary care trust had been forced to restrict access to some methods of contraception because of costs.

LARC methods of contraception, including implants, injections, and intra-uterine devices, were used by eight per cent of British women aged 16 to 49 in 2003-04, compared with 25 per cent on the Pill and 23 per cent using condoms.

They reduce the risk of unplanned pregnancies as users do not have to think about them every day or every time they have sex.

It is estimated that around 30 per cent of pregnancies are unplanned and one study has suggested that if 7.7 per cent of women moved from the Pill to LARC, unplanned pregnancies in England could be cut by 70,000 a year.

In 2003, there were 39,571 conceptions among under-18s in England. The Government has a target of halving the 1998 figure of 41,089 by 2010.

Nice said increased use of LARC methods would reduce the numbers of unintended pregnancies and abortions, and save the NHS money.

Dr Chris Wilkinson, leader of the Nice committee that produced the guidelines, said: "There was a general view on the committee that use of LARC was fairly low and that it could play a greater role in prevention of unintended pregnancies. Healthcare professionals need guidance and training so that they can help women make an informed choice."

But he added: "There are a lot of changes in the NHS happening at the moment that are going to make it difficult to implement."

Some 80 per cent of women get advice on contraception from their GPs, only some of whom have received the training required to offer LARC methods.

Norman Wells, director of the pressure group Family and Youth Concern, said: "A far more effective way of achieving cost savings to the NHS would be to spell out the positive physical and emotional benefits of confining sexual intimacy to a faithful, lifelong relationship between a husband and wife."
The Daily Telegraph, 26th October 2005

PHILLIP DAY'S COMMENT: In our anything-goes world of so many rights and nary a wrong, who is surprised the proffered answer to unwanted pregnancy is pharmaceutical not behavioural? Oh, but there I go again, banging the unloved drum of restraint. In a culture where if a little is good, more must be much better, unbridled indulgence is tacitly encouraged, along with the pharmaceutical conveniences: '[Such methods] reduce the risk of unplanned pregnancies, as users do not have to think about them every day or every time they have sex.'

Reasonable behaviour aside, is it any wonder the side-effects of such implants and injections also largely go uncovered? The world has been plagued with side-effects and deaths from such contraceptive medications ever since Envoid, the first 'Pill', made its disastrous debut onto the world stage over forty years ago. Such drugs still are linked to increased cancer risk, increase cardiovascular risk, and an assortment of 'menopausal' problems, for which HRT is offered, and failing that, hysterectomy. As Evel Knievel was wont to say before a particularly distressing leap, 'There must be an easier way.'

Norman Wells, director of the pressure group Family and Youth Concern, remarks: "A far more effective way of achieving cost savings to the NHS would be to spell out the positive physical and emotional benefits of confining sexual intimacy to a faithful, lifelong relationship between a husband and wife."

'Gad!' the world laments. 'Is the dinosaur serious?'