Emergency contraception

[Jo7]

During her time working in teenage pregnancy, ladybird has come across loads of barriers that young people face when they realise they need emergency contraception (the morning after pill or an emergency IUD). Here are a couple of examples:

I heard young mum's say that they didn't get emergency contraception because they were too worried that they'd be judged by health professionals or that they were too embarrassed to get it.

I have heard of someone who travelled to a different town to go to a different clinic the second time they wanted the morning after pill, as they didn't want to go to the same doctor again.

And here are some of the solutions that she's come across that can make the whole process a lot easier:

Something that works quite well are discretion cards. These are a bit like business cards which you hand over to your pharmacist or the doctors receptionist to explain what you want, without you having to say a word.

Something else I've heard works is always telling the doctor the condom broke - it could be less embarrassing than admitting to unprotected sex for some people.

Perhaps this is something you, your girlfriend or someone you know have been through - we'd like to hear about your experiences and we'll use this discussion to help us shape new content on Step Finder and TheSite.org.

• What other barriers might they face in getting emergency contraception - think about the practical, personal and emotional barriers.
  
• What could help to overcome these barriers?

Everyone's experience of this kind of situation will be very different - there are all sorts of variables such as age, location, whether you've taken emergency contraception before, how long it has been since you had unprotected sex, etc.

Feel free to comment on other people's ideas and here's ladybird's story to get you started....

[Fostress]

This is a comment that naR made on ladybird's blog - I thought it might be interesting to add to the discussion -

Barriers that I have heard people face regarding emergency contraception is conflicting information, I knew someone who asked NHS direct about emergency contraception and also spoke with her doctor and pharmacist; all of these professionals had slightly differing views. She was told the pilll would still be effective after three days but someone else said that it wouldn't. She was told that she needed to use extra protection for 7 days but then another professional told her 14 days. I am aware that they need to cover themselves and be extra vigilant so that their advice doesn't prove false, but differing information on top of the terrifying prospect that you might be pregnant is not a comforting feeling

[jessie]

I had to take my friend to a walk in clinic the day after my 18th birthday party to get emergency contraception after she'd had unprotected sex the day before. I still had lots of friends staying at my house but because I was the only person with a car I agreed to take her. Obviously she didn't want my parents to know so we made up some excuse about dropping off something for our friend. She had to wait a lot longer than expected for the emergency contraception which meant that we were a lot longer out of the house than "dropping something off" would take! So we had to say we got lost etc. So the barrier that we faced was the time it took. Perhaps there are quicker ways to get it but in our experience it wasn't as quick and easy as we first expected.

[Mavis]

I think the two really key barriers on this topic have already been picked up: embarrassment/judgement and knowing where to go. I also think some really useful solutions have been put forward but I've just one to add.

NHS Choices has a list of where you can get emergency contraception in your area. It's easy to look up when you know where to look: go to http://www.nhs.uk/ServiceDirectories...lHealthService and type in your postcode and a list of sexual health services will pop up. You then need to choose "Emergency Contraception" from the list under "Refine your results".