Family planning is essential

Dr Adewole: When we talk of family planning we have the natural method, the oral pills, injectables and the intrauterine device (IUD). The IUD’s are hormone impregnated. Then we have the mechanical barriers like condoms.  All are effective except for the degree of efficacy. But I must say that what may be suitable for one […]

Dr Adewole: When we talk of family planning we have the natural method, the oral pills, injectables and the intrauterine device (IUD). The IUD’s are hormone impregnated. Then we have the mechanical barriers like condoms.  All are effective except for the degree of efficacy.

But I must say that what may be suitable for one woman may not be suitable for the other. To choose any one, the gynaecologist must look at the history of the woman and see the one that is suitable.  The oral contraceptive is good and 95% effective but there are conditions under which you should not use it. For someone that has hypertension disease or persistent migraine you don’t want to use it.

When you talk about injectables, one of their side effects is irregular bleeding.  For a woman that has irregular bleeding, you don’t want to use injectables.  Remember the injectables are hormones, so for a woman whom you don’t want to use pills for; you may not use injectables for as well.  The advantage of the injectables is that it is given in 2-3 months intervals and the pills are daily so the tendency of not taking the pill is higher. Hence failure occurs.

The IUD’s too are very effective. These are conditions were you don’t use them. For a woman that is having regular bleeding you don’t want to put IUD for her because the IUD is inserted in her uterus to prevent pregnancy.  Also, a woman that is in a polygamous family, you will not want to use IUD for her because there may be transfer of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD’s) through that. The advantage of IUD is long lasting. There are some of them that can last up to ten years.

Then you have the mechanical ones like the condoms. This has dual advantage. It protects against pregnancy and STDs.  But the failure rate of condom is much higher than other methods like the injectables.

Can a woman use two forms of contraceptives?

No. Because there will be no need for that. For instance the IUD may contain what is in the injectables. But what can be done is, for instance a man can use the condom while the woman can use the gel and cream which are also contraceptives. These gel and creams contain hormones. They are part of the hormones that are used in the injectables.

What about women that want to use natural means of family planning?

The natural means has its own limitations.  That is being able to know the safe period.  For instance, if a woman’s menstrual cycle is 30 days, you divide this by three. The last day of the two 10 days is her safe period. Some women also use the billings method.

What are the side effects that these family planning methods have?

All of them have side effects. Like they say one man’s food is another’s poison. What a woman may not be able to tolerate when she uses IUD’s she may be able to tolerate when she uses injectables.  There are research findings coming out to show that the hormones do not cause obesity like it was discovered before.

What is your advice to women that don’t agree to any form of family planning?

With the cost of living nowadays, I would say if you are not planning your family, you are planning to fail. People are having children they are not able to train and this becomes a burden on the society.  So what we need is the family planning education for both the male and female.

What are you doing to sensitise women on this subject?

We are carrying out advocacy visits to Imams and emirs which can convince their subjects especially in the grassroots of the importance of family planning. The role of men is critical because even if a woman believes in this, the man may not.