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PubMed1988

Fitting the cervical cap.

The cervical cap is now available for general use by American women. Several steps are necessary to select women who are good candidates for cap usage and to successfully fit the cap. Many women are not good candidates for the cap. The cap is generally not suitable for women who have recently become sexually active or who are first-time contraceptors. Many users are women who cannot use more widely available contraceptives. Successful cap use requires a highly motivated, persistent woman who will correctly insert and remove her cap. The size, shape, length, position and location of the cervix must be assessed by the clinician prior to fitting the cap. The cervix should be visually inspected for lesions or cervicitis and a Pap smear should be taken. After an initial cap is selected, the stability of the cap, gaps between the cap and cervix, areas of uncovered cervix and the adequacy of the suction seal should be assessed. The woman should be taught how to insert and remove the cap. Additionally, she should be instructed to use a backup method of contraception until she is sure that the cap will remain in place during sexual intercourse. Successful cap fitting requires a careful, methodical approach by the clinician and a carefully selected, highly motivated client. This article presents the steps of cervical cap fitting.

Contraceptive Devices, Female↗
PubMed1996

Preliminary comparison of the polyurethane female condom with the latex male condom in Kenya.

This paper summarizes acceptability data published to date on the innovative female condom, and presents an additional study comparing the acceptability of the female condom and the latex male condom in a sample of low risk women attending private obstetrician/ gynaecologists' clinics in Nairobi, Kenya. Eighty-four percent of all subjects who completed interviewer-assisted questionnaires reported that they liked using the female condom, and more than two-thirds of all the women liked the female condom as much or better than the male condom. Fifty-five percent of the women would use the device in future if it were available. The least liked features were that the device was too large for easy insertion, messy to handle, and reduced sensation. Use became easier and more comfortable with experience. The most liked features were that the device made sex more enjoyable, protected against sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy, and was under the woman's control. Male partner response was slightly less favourable, and sometimes resulted in women's noncompliance or discontinuation of use, despite the fact that such a device is supposed to empower women. This study provides preliminary data indicating that the female condom is a fairly acceptable method for some Kenyan couples, but recommends further research into safety, cost-effectiveness and hindrances to acceptability.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Factors associated with use of the female condom.

Black, Hispanic and white women recruited for an HIV prevention intervention were instructed in the use of the female condom and encouraged to try the device. Of the 231 women who completed the intervention, 29% tried the condom over the course of a month; 30% of those who tried it used it during at least half of their sexual encounters. Both ethnicity and age were associated with trying the device: Nearly 40% of black women and 30% of Hispanic women did so, compared with 18% of white women; 37% of those aged 25-34 tried the female condom, compared with 22% of women younger than 25. Trying the device was more likely among women living with a partner, those with a history of sexually transmitted disease infection, women who had had an HIV test, those who did not believe that the method afforded them a greater degree of overall control than did the male condom and those who had no prior knowledge of the device. Among women who used the device during at least half of their sexual encounters, 27% were black and 44% were Hispanic: 38% were younger than 25, and 43% were single. More regular users were about half as likely as less regular users to experience difficulty with insertion and one-eighth as likely to report the device slipping during use; they were more likely than less regular users to report that sex was more pleasurable with the female condom than with the male condom.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Comparative contraceptive efficacy of the female condom and other barrier methods.

Because the research design for the clinical trial establishing the contraceptive efficacy of the female condom--a six-month life-table probability of failure of 15% (12% in the United States vs. 22% in Latin America)--did not include randomization with another method of contraception, no definite conclusion about its comparative efficacy is possible. Comparisons using other female barrier methods as historical controls, however, provide evidence that, among women in the United States, the contraceptive efficacy of the female condom during typical use is not significantly different from that of the diaphragm, the sponge or the cervical cap. The six-month probability of failure during perfect use of the female condom is 2.6% among U.S. women, similar to rates for the diaphragm and the cervical cap but significantly lower than that for the sponge. Meaningful comparisons with the male condom are not possible because of the lack of data from carefully controlled prospective clinical trials. Extrapolations from the results on contraceptive efficacy suggest that perfect use of the female condom may reduce the annual risk of acquiring the human immunodeficiency virus by more than 90% among women who have intercourse twice weekly with an infected male.

Clinical Trials as Topic↗
PubMed1994

Contraceptive methods and the transmission of HIV: implications for family planning.

Heterosexual transmission is the predominant mode of spread of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in most of the world. Whether the use of hormonal contraceptives, IUDs and spermicides is associated with an increased or decreased risk for HIV acquisition remains controversial. Several mechanisms whereby contraceptive methods may influence the transmission of HIV have been proposed. As contraceptive use increases among women of reproductive age, the group most vulnerable to HIV infection, any associations between contraceptive method and HIV risk become even more important. The available studies of these associations are predominantly cross-sectional and give conflicting results. We review the published evidence for associations between HIV and individual contraceptive methods. At this time no definitive conclusions regarding these associations can be drawn. Further research, especially prospective epidemiological studies and basic biological research on mechanisms of heterosexual transmission and the effect of contraceptives on these mechanisms, is urgently needed.

Condoms↗
PubMed1999

Women's attitudes to condoms and female-controlled means of protection against HIV and STDs in south-western Uganda.

The consistent and correct use of the male condom makes it highly effective in both disease prevention and as a contraceptive method. However, it is also well recognized that its use is under men's control. Because of this vital limitation, there have been frequent calls for female-controlled methods of HIV prevention, particularly from women from sub-Saharan Africa. Here we report on data collected in focus-group discussions (FGDs) with women aged 17-54 in South-Western Uganda. A total of 138 women, from rural villages, urban family planning clinics and a truck-stop town, were recruited to participate in 18 FGDs on the male condom, the female condom and existing formulations of vaginal microbicidal products. Three themes emerged: (i) problems with men's control over the male condom, (ii) the importance of control over and secrecy about protective measures and (iii) sexual pleasure associated with different methods. We found that the female condom, while being perceived as an improvement over the male condom, was recognized as having limited value because of the need to agree its use prior to sex taking place. Other products were considered to be significantly better than the female condom; the sponge, in particular, was perceived as having advantages over every other product. Women like the fact that it could be inserted some time before, and left in place some time after, sexual intercourse, that it was effective for multiple instances of intercourse, and that men would be unaware that it was being employed. Female-controlled methods to prevent sexually transmitted infections, including HIV, and to increase reproductive choice, hold the promise of ceding some control over sexual and reproductive health to women.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Influence of cycle variability and coital frequency on the risk of pregnancy.

Researchers have cautioned against generalizing results from contraceptive trials because these studies rely on self-selected participants meeting strict selection criteria who may differ from typical users. Using information collected on daily diaries, we reanalyzed data from the recently completed Reality female condom clinical trial to evaluate factors that influence the probability of pregnancy. Noncompliant women, women with less variable menstrual cycles (17-43 days), and women engaging in intercourse frequently (> or = 11 acts per month) were more likely to conceive during this 6-month trial. The adjusted hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for these three covariates were 6.1 (2.0-18.7), 7.2 (1.0-54.3), and 2.0 (0.7-5.3), respectively. The strict selection criteria used in this study failed to recruit a homogeneous cohort with respect to factors that influence the risk of pregnancy. The overall pregnancy rate does not pertain to individual study participants, but rather represent average effects for a population with the particular mix of characteristics found in this study. In particular, we not only confirm the well known importance of compliance and the obvious role of frequency of intercourse, but also demonstrate that women with cycles outside the range of 17-43 days appear to be at a much lower risk of pregnancy.

Adolescent↗