Oral contraceptive use in women with spina bifida in Sweden

• BACKGROUND: Thanks to improved medical care, individuals with spina bifida (SB) live well into adulthood and go through the process of reproductive maturation and the development of sexual desires. However, access to reproductive counselling and contraceptive use has been reported to be lower for women with physical and intellectual disabilities compared to the general population.OBJECTIVE: We investigated oral contraceptive use in women with SB, residing in Sweden and how use varies based on the level of lesion and demographic factors.METHODS: This was a population-based case-control study using annual data from national registers from 2006 to 2015. The sample consisted of 7045 women aged 15-49 years, of which 1173 had a diagnosis of SB. χ 2 tests and logistic regression were used to investigate the study objective. RESULTS: The rate of oral contraceptive use in women with SB was 24.6 % compared to 34.5 % among the general population. After adjusting for potential confounders women with SB were found to have a lower probability of using oral contraceptives (OR 0.63 95 % CI 0.56-0.71) compared to women without SB. Among women with SB, those with diagnoses Q05.8 (Sacral SB without hydrocephalus) and Q05.9 (SB unspecified) had a higher likelihood of using oral contraceptives compared to other Q05 diagnoses.CONCLUSION: Women with SB had a lower likelihood of being on oral contraceptives compared to the control group. Further research should investigate if the lower use indicates that oral contraceptives are not an inappropriate method of contraception for women with SB.

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