Researchers conducted this study to document the contraceptive choices and continuation rates for different contraceptives in a group of pregnant women who use opiates.
The present study was a prospective study set in a large city in the north of England that looked at forty pregnant women who used opiates in the index pregnancy. The study involved reviewing the records from the patients’ general practitioners with information on the continuation rates of the chosen method of contraception and any related problems. These methods allowed data collection of the understudy variables and demographics that might impact the results.
The fourteen women given Depo-Provera® did not continue the method after the first injection. Those twenty women who were given implants (n = 20) had a 95% continuation rate at a mean follow-up of over 11 months. This depicted that the implants have a better patient retention rate.
The study concluded that the implants had a reasonable continuation rate when used for postnatal contraception in women who used opiates in pregnancy. Depo-Provera may not be a suitable choice since all the women who chose this contraceptive method failed to continue with it.
Reference: https://srh.bmj.com/content/33/1/31
