In order to develop a program for prevention of unwanted pregnancies, we conducted a survey of contraceptive practices and reasons for contraceptive failures of 1520 women seeking abortion at eight large hospitals in Zheng Zhou City, Henan Province, P.R. China, during the period from March 1996 to May 1996. The most frequent cause of the unplanned pregnancy was contraceptive failure (71.9%) 61.7% (938) of these current pregnancies were potentially predictable by virtue of nonuse of contraception (427) or by recognition of contraceptive failures (511). Among the contraceptive failures, the proportion of condom mishaps was the highest (29.7%), next was IUD failures (23.5%), then rhythm miscalculation (15.9%). Most of abortion seekers (77.1%) used some contraceptive methods previously. But only 19.7% of them used a contraceptive method at the first sexual intercourse. Among 1520 abortion seekers. 57.6% had used condoms previously; 50.9% of the condom users had at least one instance of condom mishap. The rhythm method had been used by 31.7% of abortion seekers previously; 59.1% of the rhythm users had at least one instance of rhythm failure. Of the 16.8% of abortion seekers who had used pills, 58.0% of them had pill failures Among condom and pill failures, most of them (46.4% condom users and 56.0%, pill users) belonged to the users failure category (poor compliance). Of those seeking abortion 56.4% had experienced at least one instance of previous abortion; 5.3% had experienced previous abortions at least two times. Emergency contraception had been utilized by only 10 subjects prior to this current pregnancy.
PIP: A survey of 1520 consecutive Chinese women seeking induced abortion at eight hospitals in Zheng Zhou City, Hunan Province, during March-May 1996 revealed the presence of contraceptive failure in 1093 women (71.9%). The mean age of abortion seekers was 26.9 years; 235 women (15.5%) were unmarried and 871 (57.3%) had no children. 938 (61.7%) of these pregnancies were potentially predictable as a result of nonuse of contraception (427 women) or timely recognition of contraceptive failure (511 women). Condoms accounted for the highest proportion (29.7%) of contraceptive failures, followed by IUD (23.5%), and rhythm (15.9%). 77.1% of abortion seekers had previously used at least one contraceptive method, although only 299 (19.7%) used a method at first intercourse. Overall, 57.6% of contraceptive users had experienced contraceptive failure at some point. In most cases, these failures resulted from user noncompliance (e.g., forgetting to use condoms and missed or delayed pill-taking), suggesting a need for more thorough counseling. Only 10 women (1.1%) had used emergency contraception, but without success. If the remaining 928 women who either had unprotected intercourse or recognized contraceptive failure immediately had used the Yuzpe emergency contraception regimen, about 75% would not have become pregnant. These findings suggest that condom and rhythm users should be targeted for the introduction of an emergency contraception program aimed at reducing the high rate of abortion in China.