Perceptions of barriers to effective family planning services among women with disabilities.
Jeanne L Alhusen, Tina Bloom, Kathryn Laughon and 2 others
PMID 33384277WHAT IT FOUND
Almost all women with disabilities interviewed said inaccessible clinics, costs, and providers who avoided contraception talk made family planning hard.
They also struggled to find methods that worked with their disability-related side effects and physical limits.
Key findings
01With one exception, all participants reported barriers to obtaining family planning services.
02Many participants said providers were reluctant to raise contraception, and some said family planning was never discussed; participants attributed this to being seen as asexual.
03Participants also struggled to find methods that worked: side effects were harder when the disability already caused similar symptoms, and mobility limitations made IUD insertion positioning difficult.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
Only women who could demonstrate understanding of informed consent were eligible, so women with significant cognitive disabilities were not included. Convenience sampling through social media and disability organizations may limit generalizability; participants connected to these supports may not represent all US women with disabilities. Four women were excluded from the 31 women included in the qualitative aim, and the number actually analysed is not clear. The study is qualitative and did not test family planning services or interventions, so it cannot show whether any barrier caused unintended pregnancy or whether a solution works. All participants identified as heterosexual, so the findings may not apply to women with other sexual orientations.
Declared interests
The authors reported no conflict of interest. The paper is listed as supported by NIH extramural research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that any specific barrier caused unintended pregnancy or that a family planning intervention works. This was a qualitative study of women who already had unintended pregnancies, and it did not test treatments or compare outcomes.