Use of emergency contraception in higher education students

The use of emergency contraception, used by women after sexual intercourse to avoid the unintended pregnancy, has been increasing in last decades. The present study aimed to characterize the contraceptives behaviors, with emphasis to emergency contraception, in higher education female students. Using a cross-sectional study, a questionnaire-based study was targeted to 130 students of the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, with ages between 18 and 36 old. From these students, 75% were sexually active, with the majority of them using contraceptive methods during intercourse. Usually, contraceptive methods comprised masculine condom (35.4%), oral hormonal contraception (14.6%) or both methods (18.5%). Moreover, the use of emergency contraception was assumed by 23% of these students, with one fifth of them using this method for more than once. Thought the analysis of variables, it was found that there is a relationship between age and the start of sexual activity, the use of contraceptive methods during intercourse, and also in between age of the 1st intercourse and the usage of emergency contraceptive methods. The high prevalence of emergency contraception use in these students indicated the trivialization of this type of oral contraception. Them, it is crucial to further disclosure and provision the preventive contraceptive methods once young population is not still aware of their benefits and excessively resort from emergence contraceptive methods