[Side-effects of oral contraceptives under psychological-sociological aspects. Results of an empirical study on 345 women].

Do women without experience in taking oral contraceptives expect more side-effects than women, who use this contraceptive method, ever experienced? This question was examined on 345 women in pregnancy and childbed Psychological and sociological data, as personality factors, general well-being, school education, intelligence and age were evaluated. The attitude towards the pill depended on the families opinion of the pill, fear of cancer, knowledge about the pill and experience of menstruation. Half of the women had never taken the pill. Those women expected more side-effects than women, who had taken the pill had experienced (p less than 0,05). Those women who had never taken the pill stated frequently, that their partner (p less than 0,001) and mother (p less than 0,001) rejected the pill. Three fourth of women without experiences in taking the pill doubted thepill to be safe. Two thirds of these women were anxious the pill might cause cancer. Four fifth of the questioned women thought a pregnancy would mean more stress than taking the pill, women without experience in taking the pill more frequently thought the pill to be more disturbing (p less than 0,01). Women who had never taken the pill, suffered more often from reduced well-being (p less than 0,05) and were also more often introverted (p less than 0,1). The more irregular and painful menstruations were, the more women accepted the pill (p less than 0,01). Women with experience in taking the pill had often higher intelligence (p less than 0,05) and a higher education level (p less than 0,01). This is important for the interpretation of the results. The results were statistically checked by the x2-method.