Recently, I had to operate three cases of ectopic pregnancies in a succession within a week. Ectopic pregnancy is a pregnancy at an abnormal location. Normally, pregnancy occurs inside the womb (uterus), rarely it can get implanted at abnormal places like tube, ovary, cervix etc. Surprisingly, all three patients had a history of emergency contraceptive (pills) intake. Maybe coincidentally, but there is definitely an alarming rise in consumption of emergency pills especially among youngsters. The reason may be either over the counter availability of these pills or unawareness or myths about regular contraceptive methods. Whatever may be the reason, every other young female visiting the clinic is giving the history of e-pill intake without any knowledge of probable side effects and complications.
There seems to be an urgent need for contraceptive counselling sessions especially targeting the youngsters.
- We need to provide a comfortable and informative environment to young couples.
- Online platform can also be used more efficiently to fulfil the unmet need. Among such a tech-savvy generation, online consultations seem to be an appropriate option for such private conversations.This will not only reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies thereby decreasing the number of people coming for medical abortions, but also avoid undue intake of e-pills.
- In case of hesitation or shyness, even identity may also be kept hidden giving an utmost importance to the privacy of the couple.
- Youngsters need to be informed regarding all the contraceptive methods available (popularly known as cafeteria approach). All the myths related to various contraceptive methods should be cleared and corrected. All apprehensions should be listened to carefully and all doubts should be cleared.
- A nonjudgmental attitude and friendly atmosphere will help in the prevention of unplanned pregnancies and undue MTPs.
This will also diminish over and undue usage of emergency pills thereby reducing various complications related to them.