Reviewer ’s report  
 
Title: Contraceptive experience and perception. A survey among Ukrainian women.  
 
Version: 1 Date: 24 Feb 2018  
 
Reviewer: Made  Laanpere  
 
Reviewer's report:  
 
This revised version of the manuscript resolves many concerns, but still contains inaccuracies 
and raises new questions. Paper needs some language correction before being published.  
Fundamentally, I have concerns regarding the data. In your response about missing questions 
about outcomes you answered: "The question regarding experinece was a method ever used and 
regarding knowledge was "Please specify the contraceptive method you have heard of " this 
information has been added to the method s ection. Most women gave more than one method."  
If all your mentioned contraceptive methods are available in Ukraine, it is hard to believe that 
Ukrainian women KNOW only ONE contraceptive method. Moreover, I have the same concern 
about experience. Women ´ s needs and preferences change during their lifetime. It seems that 
there must be something else about asking questions. Please specify and in the case only one 
answer was available, this is a serious limitation and has a significant impact on the conclusi ons. 
 
Background  
More information has been added about reproductive indicators making overall understanding 
about Ukraine situation much better.  
1) However, as you mentioned in your respond: "Statistics in Ukraine is not always easy to 
get."  It is underst andable, but it is also well -known that data about contraception and 
especially about abortion differ from a range of sources.  Therefore, estimation of regional 
prevalence requires information on the origin and limits of the data. If it is not possible or  
data source is not trustable it is better to leave them out.  
For example:  
Roads 64 -67. Data from  the State Statistics Service of Ukraine (2014a). Demographic data for 
2013 show that "unmet need in Ukraine 2012 was 4,9%" which is very low and does not seem as 
the problem ?  
Roads 101 -103. Data source is missing. "Abortion rates r apidly declined during 1995 -2005 102 
and after that the drop notably slowed (from 41,3% in 1995 -2000 to 9,3% in 2009 -103 2010)". 
Abortion rate 9,3 is very low and is achievable only in countries with the high prevalence of very 
effective contraceptive meth ods (hormonal, eg  LARC).  
 
2) Roads 77 -78. "Counselling for family planning methods are usually performed by 
obstetricians and  gynecologists in family planning clinics, counseling units and hospitals."  
I´m wondering, is contraceptive counselling is provide d mainly in special family planning 
clinics? How many such clinics are in Ukraine? Is contraceptive counselling the essential part of 
every obs/gyn visit?  
 
3) Road 79 -80. It is not availability but access of contraceptive methods  
 
4) Road 95 -96. What kind of additional treatments do you mean? In case of uncomplete 
abortion (with metrorrhagia of without) who is paying?  
 
Methods  
1) Road 134 -136. How respondents were selected into the study?  
 
2) Road 139 -140. If you assessed "the number of women who had ever used contraceptive 
method" in your study it is not reliable to talk about "unmet need". If you really did so, you 
have to explain why you excluded women who did not use contraceptive methods (women 
in unmet need)?  
 
Results  
1) Road 150. These numbers are no r presented in the Table I (Table 1). Please use the unified 
numerations according to the rules of the journal.  
 
2) Road 151 -154. "Barrier methods (condoms and pessaries) and oral contraceptives were the 
most commonly used methods (75% and 46,4% respectivel y) whilst only a few women had 
used IUC (15.6%). (Fig I). The experience of and the knowledge regarding long acting 
reversible contraception (LARC) such as IUC and implants were low (46,7%).(Fig II).  
The title of the Figure II  The figures I presents: "Fig ure 1 Contraceptive Knowledge among 
participants in %" and another Figure 1 presents:" Contraceptive experiences among participants 
in %". Please clarify.  
NB! The data in these figures are very poorly presented, there are missing column names and 
abbrevia tions do not match the abbreviations in the text.  
 
Discussion  
1) Road 176. Source in not numbered.  
 
2) Road 212 Proven fertility - please refer to my comment in the first review  
 
Conclusions  
1) Road 236 -237. I do not believe that "policy makers have a great responsibility to increase 
knowledge regarding family planning". It is much more the responsibility of health care 
providers and specialists responsible for the development of the school ed ucation 
programms and teachers education. Politics has the important influence and it is 
multidimensional - also availability of contraceptive methods depends on politics as well as 
many other activities to promote women´s health and rights. It is interesti ng to know which 
of these do you see as the most important or quickly resolved?  
Are the methods appropriate and well described?  
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.  
 
No 
 
Does the work include the necessary controls?  
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.  
 
Unable to assess  
 
Are the conclusions drawn adequat ely supported by the data shown?  
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.  
 
No 
 
Are you able to assess any statistics in the manuscript or would you recommend an  
additional statistical review?  
If an additional statistical review is recommended,  please specify what aspects require further  
assessment in your comments to the editors.  
 
Not relevant to this manuscript  
 
  
Quality of written English  
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:  
 
Needs some language corrections before being publ ished  
 
Declaration of competing interests  
Please complete a declaration of competing interests, considering the following questions:  
 
1. Have you in the past five years received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary 
from an  organisation th at may in any way gain or lose financially from the 
publication of this  manuscript, either now or in the future?  
 
2. Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation that may in any way gain or lose  
financially from the publication of this manuscript, ei ther now or in the future?  
 
3. Do you hold or are you currently applying for any patents relating to the content of 
the manuscript?  
 
4. Have you received reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that 
holds  or has applied for patents rela ting to the content of the manuscript?  
 
5. Do you have any other financial competing interests?  
 
6. Do you have any non -financial competing interests in relation to this paper?  
 
If you can answer no to all of the above, write 'I declare that I have no competi ng interests' 
below.  If your reply is yes to any, please give details below.  
 
I declare that I have no competing  interests.  
 
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