Emergency Contraceptive Pills (ECP) in the era of 'Safe Sex'
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Emergency Contraceptive Pills (ECP) in the era of 'Safe Sex'
IRAS ID
199706
Contact name
Verity Pooke
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Kent
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
The Emergency Contraceptive Pill (ECP), known popularly as ‘the morning after pill’, provides a potentially highly effective means to address unwanted pregnancy (UP). This potential is recognised in health policy; ECP has been made available to women ‘over the counter’ in pharmacies, and schemes have been developed for advance provision of the ECP to encourage its use. Yet evidence indicates that ECP has so far failed to make a significant impression on the incidence of UP and research about advance provision indicates its uptake by women is low. Relevant professional bodies suggest women worry about using ECP, and have emphasised their concerns about being judged for using it, especially about asking for a supply in advance of use.
This project will use sociological theories and methods to investigate why ECP remains under-utilised, and in particular why women feel they may be ‘judged’ as ECP users. The study involves three areas of research. Part one will be focus groups with women of different ages, these women may also have different experiences with methods of contraception that will bring together an broad review of methods of contraception. Part two will be interviews with women who have recently used the ECP, in order to understand first hand the experience of women and the ECP. The third part will be interviews with health professionals who work in family planning, sexual health services and health service settings, exploring their attitudes to and experiences of distributing the ECP (including in advance), their opinions on the behaviour of women seeking it, and what they think about the attributes ECP has as a form of contraception. The research addresses real life working of risk perception and its relation to understandings of responsibility and morality, and will shed light on how to address important policy problem.REC name
East of England - Cambridge East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EE/0198
Date of REC Opinion
9 Jun 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion