Women unable to access contraception

Many women are not being able to access contraception, according to findings from a new survey

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) last week released findings from a survey of 3,000 women, which highlights that many women are not being able to access contraception. Dr Christina Hennessey, Lloydspharmacy’s Online Doctor, comments on the need for all women to have better access to the contraception they need.

New research from the BPAS has found that worryingly four in ten women who became pregnant unintentionally admitted having problems accessing contraception. A number of obstacles were identified as contributing to this, including the closure of family planning clinics and inconvenient clinic opening hours. It was also suggested that many clinics were restricted to younger women and also that some services do not offer the full range of methods.

Women of all ages and backgrounds should be able to get contraception when they need it and we fully support calls by the BPAS to improve access. Our experience in providing contraception services through the Lloydspharmacy Online Doctor has shown that there are many instances where women are too busy to see their doctor face-to-face or simply embarrassed about going to their local clinic to get the emergency pill. For women who are already faced with these obstacles their concerns will not be helped by having the additional issue of access.

Our Online Doctor service is proof that women are not always able to depend on getting contraception for free. As many are willing to pay for our service this illustrates that often women don’t feel they can rely on their local clinic and prefer the convenience and discretion of accessing a service online.

Patients can log onto the Online Doctor service at lloydspharmacy.com/doctor. The service provides oral contraception, including emergency contraception which can be purchased in advance. Emergency contraception for immediate use can also be purchased using the same day in-pharmacy collection. The Online Doctor website is available 24 hours a day.

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