Support is also available for GPs wanting to offer LARCs and early medical abortion in the wider community.
Long-acting reversible contraception uptake is low in Australia, and especially among young women from multicultural backgrounds.
A new resource in five languages is available on the SPHERE website to answer their questions and concerns.
“LARC methods are over 99% effective at preventing pregnancy,” said Professor Danielle Mazza AM, head of Monash University’s Department of General Practice. “However, use of LARCs by Australian women from multicultural communities is low due to limited knowledge, stigma and misconceptions.”
The online 13-minute educational video aims to increase knowledge about contraception available in Australia, such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) and the contraceptive implant. It covers the types of hormones present in different contraception devices and their effectiveness. It also explains how they are used, inserted and removed, their effect on bleeding patterns, common side effects, non-contraceptive benefits and whether they protect against STIs. The video discusses how long they can be used for, their cost, and whether a prescription is needed.
The original is in English, presented by women from different cultures, and the other four are dubbed into Arabic, Cantonese, Hindi and Mandarin.
Young women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are more likely to have unintended pregnancies and to rely on less effective contraceptive methods like condoms and withdrawal than women born in Australia.
“Combining contraceptive education with support to LARC access is crucial for empowering these young women to make informed contraceptive decisions and prevent unintended pregnancies,” said Professor Mazza.
The video was developed by Professor Mazza and her team in consultation with young Australian English-speaking women from Chinese, Indian and Middle-Eastern backgrounds.
They said that important issues to address in the video included: the covertness of contraceptive methods, cost, access, effect on periods and low efficacy of natural contraceptive methods. They said it should be made clear that LARC did not equate to abortion and that hormones did not damage the body.
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Format suggestions included delivery by a female doctor from the same culture as the viewer, sharing anecdotes and making the video available to male partners, parents, peers, family and community leaders.
Research into the effect of the video showed that preference for using a LARC increased from 2.5% of viewers prior to watching them to 51% afterwards.
LARC use in the general community is also lower than it is in other high income countries, according to the Australian Contraception and Abortion Primary Care Practitioner Support (AusCAPPS) Network, which provides resources and peer support for the provision of LARC and early medical abortion (EMA) in primary care.
Currently only 11% of GPs provide EMA.
“Despite the availability of EMA in Australia for over 10 years, our results reiterate that critical barriers to primary care provision of LARC and EMA provision include a lack of knowledge around side effects and complications and a lack of training opportunities to gain competence and confidence in delivering these services,” said the authors of a paper published this month in the BMJ, looking at the needs of practitioners around provision of services in a primary healthcare setting.
“The current Australian GP training curriculum focuses on patient counselling and referral rather than on direct provision of EMA, and training opportunities in IUD insertion are generally limited to fixed-term, time-intensive placements in dedicated family planning clinic settings.
“Our findings indicate that even experienced practitioners providing LARC and EMA sought support around clinical issues, demonstrating the ongoing role [virtual communities of practice] play in responding to continuing professional needs for both experienced and emerging providers.”
Resources:
Contraception videos in six languages (Sphere)
Long-acting reversible contraceptives: New evidence to support clinical practice
Family Planning Australia Resources
