Most women view "morning after pills" favorably

NEW YORK, Feb 3 (Reuters) More than 90 per cent of women between 15 and 24 years old consider contraceptive ''morning after pills'' to be safe and effective, according to a new report. However, the findings also show that easy accessibility to emergency contraception influences whether it is used promptly.

Morning after pills, which are taken after intercourse, consist of hormones that prevent a pregnancy from occurring. Since they can be taken immediately after intercourse (instead of waiting until the ''morning after''), some doctors prefer the term ''emergency contraception.'' To evaluate the acceptability of emergency contraception among young women, Dr Corinne H. Rocca from the University of California, San Francisco and colleagues analyzed survey data from 1,950 women who participated in a study that evaluated access to emergency contraception through advance provision, pharmacies or clinics.

The results show that 92 per cent of the women believed emergency contraception to be safe and 98 per cent considered it effective, according to the report in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Compared with women who had clinic access to emergency contraception, those with direct pharmacy access did not rate it as being more convenient and were no more likely to use it promptly.

By contrast, women who were given a dose to keep on hand rated it as being highly convenient and were more likely than women in the other two groups to use emergency contraception promptly.

Overall, 14 per cent of the participants reported not using emergency contraception when they thought there might be a need. The main reasons cited were inconvenience and fear of adverse effects, the report indicates.

''These findings underscore the importance of convenient access (to) emergency contraception,'' Rocca and colleagues conclude.

''Although greater availability of emergency contraception through over-the-counter access could alleviate barriers to use for some women,'' they add, ''promotion of advance provision will be imperative to improving access and use.'' REUTERS MQA ND1024