Health care providers talk to women every day who need accurate information about contraception to plan families, finish school, improve their health, and take advantage of other contraceptive benefits. Medical organizations, foundations, agencies, and pharmaceutical companies are steadily conducting surveys to help women in the U.S. learn more about contraception, including little-known health benefits. Of course, scientists and researchers have spent a lot of time and energy investigating questions about contraceptive efficacy, modes of action, health benefits, and safety, among others. Meanwhile, in a world very different from university, public health, and industry research laboratories, women have their own cultural biases, questions, and individual perceptions about contraception. Understanding these perceptions is essential to designing effective education programs that can help women learn more about the health benefits of contraception.
Providers benefit from feedback .
Results from patient surveys can also help educate health care providers. But an astonishing 65 percent of women in 1993 believed the pill was at least as hazardous as pregnancy, even though childbearing carries twice the risk of death as the use of birth control pills. And, although birth control pills actually prevent some cancers, only six percent of the women surveyed were aware of the pill's protection against cancer. Only 20 percent could volunteer that the pill helped regulate menstrual cycles, and 58 percent could not name one non-contraceptive health benefit of the pill. The poll questions focussed on general reproductive health concerns, sexuality and contraception, birth control, pregnancy and childbirth, knowledge and myths about women's reproductive health, and other similar matters.