The Potential Role of Contraceptive Implants in Sub-Saharan Africa

A study by investigators at Family Health International and University College London, conducted with partial support from USAID, suggests that a large number of unintended pregnancies in sub-Saharan Africa could be averted if even a fraction of women who use short-term hormonal contraceptives (pills and injectables) would switch to contraceptive implants.

The authors used a model that incorporated several variables, including the prevalence of short-term hormonal contraceptive use, the number of unintended pregnancies caused by the early discontinuation of these short-term methods, and the typical failure rates for the short-term methods.

The model estimates that nearly 14 million unintended pregnancies occur in sub-Saharan Africa every year, and that a large fraction of these pregnancies is due to poor patterns of use of short-term hormonal methods. If 20 percent of the 17.6 million women in sub-Saharan Africa who use short-term methods switched to contraceptive implants, more than 1.8 million unintended pregnancies could be averted within a five-year period.

Increasing the availability and the voluntary use of contraceptive implants would improve the reproductive health of women in this region.

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Source
Hubacher D, Mavranezouli I, McGinn E. Unintended pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa: magnitude of the problem and potential role of contraceptive implants to alleviate it. Contraception 2008;78:73–78.