Abastract Objective: to discern the profile of the Spanish Emergency Contraceptive users (EC).
Design: systematic review of contraceptive use in the Spanish population.
Data source: Spanish and international databases, between January 2006 - March 2011.
Keywords: Contraceptives, Postcoital pills, emergency contraception, levonorgestrel, data collection.
Study selection: original papers, letters to the editor in which stated aims were the description, prediction or measurement of variables related to EC use. Twenty-two papers were retrieved and fourteen were finally selected, all of which were descriptive.
Data extraction: manuscripts were evaluated by two independent reviewers.
Results: Women requesting EC have ages between 21-24 years, mostly single and university students; declare that they have not previously used EC, and attend an Emergency department, at weekends and within 48 hours following unprotected sexual intercourse. The reason is condom rupture. None of the studies reviewed measured alcohol and other drug consumption, the number of sexual partners, nor any of the studies performed a comparison with a group not using EC.
Conclusions: lack of homogeneity and comprehensiveness of studied variables resulted in a limited profile of Spanish EC users. Further studies are needed with a more comprehensive approach if sexual health interventions are to be carried out in possible users.