Social media plays 'fundamental role' in women's decisions on contraceptives

Less than 1% of women believed solely in their physician’s contraceptive advice, according to research presented at the American Society of Reproductive Medicine Scientific Congress & Expo.

Meanwhile, 99.27% of women considered it important to acquire information about contraceptive methods on social media and that their physician had a presence on social media, Fernando Prado, MD, PhD, of the Neo Vita Clinic in Brazil, reported.

Prado and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from a questionnaire administered on Instagram by digital influencer Rebeca Gerhardt, MD, an OB-GYN in Brazil (@dra.revecagerhardt). The questionnaire assessed respondents’ satisfaction with contraceptive methods, as well as their use of medical guidance and social media for information on contraceptives. It was available on Gerhardt’s Instagram page for 24 hours and yielded 1,012 responses. The average age of the women who participated was 28.5 years.

Among the study cohort, 94.5% reported using a contraceptive method. The pill was the most popular method, used by 37.69% of respondents, according to Prado and colleagues. Hormonal and copper IUDs were the next most popular contraceptive, used by 19.7% and 13.7% of respondents, followed by condoms, used by 15.43% of respondents. Prado and colleagues found that only 7.9% of respondents used other contraceptive methods like progesterone injections, tablets, hormonal patches, vaginal rings, progesterone implants or withdrawal. Meanwhile, 5.5% of women did not use any contraception.

Also, 43.7% of women consulted their physician for medical advice on contraceptives, while 37.1% received no medical advice and 25.4% used social media to obtain information. Only 0.79% did not think social media was an important source for acquiring information on contraceptives.

Overall, just 50.2% of women reported that they were satisfied with their current contraceptive method, according to the researchers. Of the respondents, 10.7% said they were not satisfied with their contraceptive and 39.1% believed it could be better. More than half of women (52.6%) used contraceptives to avoid pregnancy, while 90.9% of women used it for a combination of reasons; 38.7% of women used contraceptives to reduce their menstrual flow, improve premenstrual tension or manage their menstrual cycle.

Prado and colleagues reported that women are still uncertain about the value of medical guidance regarding contraceptives. Meanwhile, social media plays “a fundamental role” in influencing women’s decisions on contraceptives, they wrote.

“The study can contribute to better understand the behavior of patients and, with that, generate new strategies for conduct that establish a greater connection with the patient,” Prado and colleagues wrote in the poster.