Practices of prescribing oral contraceptives in Poland.

We developed and performed a survey on practices of prescribing oral contraceptives in Poland. The survey was carried out in Warsaw, the capital city of Poland and one of the most important areas of the country (approximately 4 million inhabitants). The main aim of the study was to recognize the rationale and practices of prescribing oral contraceptives by gynecologists in Poland (oral contraceptives are prescribed mostly by gynecologists, not by general practitioners or midwives). The questions were sent to all members of Warsaw's Association of Gynecologists, but we have received back only 276 answers (79% of the total number of members) and the responses are presented here. The responses revealed that the most popular oral contraceptives are those modern formulations combining low doses of ethinylestradiol and progestogens such as norgestimate, desogestrel, gestodene and levonorgestrel. For gynecologists, the most important factors in the selection of an oral contraceptive were the dose of hormones (20.3%), the formulation (18.5%), tolerance by patients (23.5%) and past clinical experience with the formulation (9.4%). The price was most important for 3.7%, and good marketing practices were most important for 8.3% of the gynecologists.