Contraceptive method preference and reasons for contraceptive discontinuation among women randomized to intramuscular depot medroxyprogesterone acetate, a copper intrauterine device or a levonorgestrel implant: Findings from Durban, South Africa.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Copper (Supplement) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The use of intrauterine devices (IUDs) and contraceptive implants in South Africa is low with limited data on patterns of use and reasons for discontinuation.

The researchers describe contraceptive preferences and reasons for discontinuation among women enrolled in the Evidence for Contraceptive Options and HIV Outcomes (ECHO) Trial from one trial site.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 829 women taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers, young adults and adults, women only.

ECHO, conducted between 2015 and 2018, enrolled and randomized sexually active women, aged 16 to 35, and desiring contraception, to intramuscular depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA-IM), a copper intrauterine device (copper-IUD) or a levonorgestrel (LNG) implant; follow-up was 12 to 18 months.

The researchers interviewed 829 women at the Durban, South Africa trial site at ECHO Trial exit to ascertain contraceptive preferences at randomization.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Copper (Supplement) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Reasons for randomized contraceptive discontinuation were collected at ECHO Trial exit and 6 months later.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Contraception, Contraceptive Agents, Female, Intrauterine Devices, Copper, Intrauterine Devices, Medicated, Levonorgestrel, Medroxyprogesterone Acetate and South Africa.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Discontinuation, IUD, Implant, Long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) and Randomization.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Copper (Supplement) in 829 women.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2022 (Contraception), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Copper (Supplement) compound page, all human trials.