This
site is designed for Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator versions
4 and above and a screen resolution of at least 800x600
|
|
|
Family planning or family headaches?
By
George Kasakula - 24-10-2002 |
|
|
Misconceptions about family planning methods
No sooner had Gloria Chimbananga of Chimwankhunda Township in Blantyre taken loop as a family planning method than she started regretting that she had not made the right decision for her life.
When she told some of her close friends about this, tongues started wagging.
She will grow very fat, some of her friends said.
Others said the loop would get lost and reach her heart.
And yet others said she would end up being attacked by cancer and eventually kiss mother earth goodbye.
While this may be to the extreme, it is a fact that family planning methods such as the loop, depo provera (injection), norplant, vasectomy and tubal ligation are misconstrued, which scares away would-be users.
Brenda Msadala, Training Officer for family health service providers Banja La Mtsogolo (BLM), concedes that while some of the misconceptions are founded, others are not.
In an interview, Msadala said it is not true that some family planning methods such as norplant, which use hormones to stop ovulation in women, cause cancer, but that if the cancer was already there, it may just be aggravated.
“Normally, this happens when the method involved is the combined oral contraceptive, famously known as the pill, which uses two hormones: oestrogen and progesterone. It is the oestrogen that aggravates cancer. But at BLM clinics, we always screen clients before giving them this method. If something is wrong in their bodies, we advise them to go for another one,” she says.
The other thing that is also associated with methods such as pills and injections is that they make women fat. While agreeing that this is true based on evidence, Msadala says it cannot be attributed to family planning methods per se but psychological factors as well.
Says she: “When a woman has a free mind knowing that she will not get pregnant, with good eating habits, it can indeed lead to her getting fat.”
Other women, according to Msadala, fear that they will get thin as a result of taking pills. But Msadala says that there are no statistics to show that a woman could get thin because of any family planning method.
She says such a woman should seek medical attention to be screened to find the real cause of the problem.
“It could be attributed to other problems such as marital or social. But certainly it is not because of any family planning methods,” Msadala argues.
Then there is infertility. Some women have complained that after getting off the pill or an injection to have a baby, they take ages without getting pregnant.
The BLM’s training officer, who is a qualified nurse, confirmed that this does happen, attributing it to the after-effects of the methods.
She adds that eventually, fertility returns, saying unless it has coincided with old age when a woman reaches menopause, no matter how long it takes, the woman will still have a baby.
But she warns: “In extreme cases, the infertility can go for as long as five years.”
In some cases, women taking pills, injections and sometimes norplant have also complained of lost or dwindled libido, which frustrates their husbands.
There is evidence that this may happen, Msadala says, especially in some women, who are on injection. She attributes this to high dosage of hormones, but is quick to add that in other women, it can lead to the opposite — high libido.
“What must be borne in mind is that hormones act differently in different people just like any medication has different side-effects on two different individuals,” says Msadala.
Her conclusion is that some misconceptions about some family planning methods are just what they are: a figment of the mind because they are greatly exaggerated.
She points out though that the solution to the problem lies in giving adequate information to clients, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the various methods so that clients make informed decisions.
“Clients have a right to information. It may somehow be negative. But they have to know it any way,” she argues.
Marketing and public affairs manager for BLM Andrew Chikopa, speaking during an orientation workshop for journalists at Boadzulu Holiday Resort in Mangochi said some people wrongly attribute any disease to family planning.
“Family planning methods do not provide immunity to any disease. It is only condoms which prevent people from getting Aids and other sexually transmitted infections,” said Chikopa.
The marketing manager said the problem is that people always want to find something to discourage others from taking any family planning method. He advises people to seek medical attention when confronted with ailments other than wrongly attributing them to such methods.
The bottom line in all this is that people lack information about family planning methods and end up relying on friends who may not have adequate and true knowledge about them.
Perhaps it is against such a background that BLM’s programme director Walker Jiyani, also speaking in Mangochi, said journalists should acquire skills to disseminate correct sexual and reproductive health information.
Said Jiyani: “We hope that you will gain some skills and knowledge vital for the dissemination of correct sexual and reproductive health articles and dispel misconceptions which sometimes prevent women from taking up family planning methods.”
It will only be when the nation is full of correct information about family planning methods that people like Chimbananga will rest be assured that some of the things her friends told her were grossly exaggerated.
|
|
|
|
|
|
