Romanian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences

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COUNSELLING, KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS COMBINED ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES: A CROSS-SECTIONAL SURVEY AMONG ROMANIAN WOMEN

ANDREEA FARCAȘ 1*, ANDREEA DIANA POPA 1, SÂNZIANA MARDALE 1, CAMELIA BUCȘA 1, DANIEL-CORNELIU LEUCUȚA 2, CRISTINA MOGOȘAN 1

1.Drug Information Research Centre, “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6 Pasteur Street, 400349, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2.Medical Informatics and Biostatistics Department, “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6 Pasteur Street, 400349, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

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The daily combined oral contraceptive (COC) pill has been the contraceptive method of choice available to women worldwide for the last 50 years. This study was a cross-sectional survey designed to evaluate Romanian women’s knowledge, attitudes and counselling regarding COCs use. The majority of women considered COCs a safe, efficient and easy to use method to avoid pregnancy. While most of them used COCs at the gynaecologist’s prescription accompanied recommendation, a large percentage bought COCs without prescription from pharmacies. Despite the fact that the majority of women were counselled mainly by gynaecologists regarding the utilization, efficacy and adverse drug reactions (ADRs), their main concern and the reason of nonadherence to COCs therapy were the possible ADRs. The findings indicate that counselling supports an informed and rational use of COCs. Healthcare professionals should be aware that Romanian women’s perception on COCs ADRs is more important than their perceived efficacy. Thus effective education on COCs utilization should improve compliance.