Cooke-Jackson Angela, Rubinsky Valerie, Gunning Jacqueline N
Department of Communication Studies, California State University, Los Angeles.
Department of Social Science, University of Maine at Augusta.
Health Commun. 2023 Apr;38(4):834-843. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2021.1980249. Epub 2021 Sep 20.
In recent decades, women's use of contraception has evolved. Women not only utilize contraceptives to prevent pregnancy, but also to manage menstruation and other factors related to their personal agency. Despite an abundance of available contraceptive options, many women struggle to navigate and address their contraceptive needs. A hundred and thirty-four female participants responded to an open-ended questionnaire about contraceptive messages and decision making in an online survey. Using Uncertainty Management Theory as a framework, we illustrate how the women make sense of and manage uncertainty from multiple contraceptive messages. Results highlighted the absence of desired information, and identified messages that women wish they had received from healthcare providers and others. Our findings suggest that women's understanding of contraceptives' side effects is a communicative process in which anecdotal evidence is often treated as medical fact and healthcare providers are viewed as ineffective and dismissive in relaying and addressing information about contraception. In the absence of satisfying healthcare interactions, women seek information elsewhere to make their contraceptive choices.
近几十年来，女性对避孕措施的使用发生了变化。女性不仅使用避孕药具来防止怀孕，还用于管理月经以及与她们个人自主相关的其他因素。尽管有大量可用的避孕选择，但许多女性在应对和满足自身避孕需求方面仍存在困难。134名女性参与者在一项在线调查中回答了一份关于避孕信息和决策的开放式问卷。以不确定性管理理论为框架，我们阐述了女性如何理解和管理来自多种避孕信息的不确定性。结果突出了所需信息的缺失，并确定了女性希望从医疗保健提供者和其他人那里获得的信息。我们的研究结果表明，女性对避孕药具副作用的理解是一个交流过程，在此过程中，轶事证据往往被视为医学事实，而医疗保健提供者在传递和处理有关避孕的信息时被认为是无效和不屑的。在缺乏令人满意的医疗互动的情况下，女性会在其他地方寻求信息以做出避孕选择。
