Use of combined oral contraceptive pills among teenage girls in Calabar, Nigeria

Abstract

The objective of this study was to find out about the use of combined oral contraceptive pills by women in Calabar Nigeria with a particular interest in single nulliparous teenage women. During the period from 2006 to 2010 a total of 1980 women seen in the University of Calabar Teaching Hospitals family planning unit used various methods of contraception. Of these 316 (15.96%) used combined oral contraceptive pills. Twenty girls aged between 13 and 19 years accounted for 6.3% of those who used combined oral contraceptive pills. There were 296 (93.6%) women between the ages of 20 and 34 years who accounted for the remaining users. Of these women 195 (61.5%) were educated to the secondary level and 34 (10.8%) were educated to primary level. No women without formal education used combined oral contraceptive pills during the period of study. The majority of the users were nulliparous (128; 40.4%); the rest had parity values of at least one to more than four. One hundred thirty-seven (43.4%) of the users were single 112 (35.4%) were married and the remaining 67 (21.1%) were separated divorced or widowed. There is a growing need to educate young Nigerian women about the use of combined oral contraceptive pills; this medication is suitable and effective for most young women and it also has additional noncontraceptive health benefits.