"We have to be mythbusters": Clinician attitudes about the legitimacy of patient concerns and dissatisfaction with contraception

Social Science & Medicine
Lindsay M Stevens

Abstract

Although women in the United States use birth control at high rates, they also discontinue it at high rates, often citing dissatisfaction and side effects. At the same time, research shows that clinicians often neglect to discuss or discursively downplay the importance of side effects in contraceptive counseling. Scholars have yet to consider how clinicians' beliefs about the legitimacy of patient concerns and dissatisfaction may undergird these patterns. This study uses in-depth interviews with reproductive healthcare providers (N = 24) to examine their attitudes about common complaints regarding hormonal birth control. I identify how their reliance on formal medical knowledge, including evidence-based models, can lead them to frame patients' experiences or concerns about side effects as "myths" or "misconceptions" to be corrected rather than legitimized. I also describe a pattern of providers portraying negative side effects as normal to contraception and therefore encouraging patients to "stick with" methods despite dissatisfaction. Finally, I explore how these themes manifest in racialized and classed discourses about patient populations. I discuss the potential cumulative impact of these attitudes - if providers do carry t...Continue Reading

Citations

Nov 28, 2019·Journal of the American Heart Association·Jacqueline M TorresBrenda Eskenazi
Dec 29, 2020·Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology·Nancy F BerglasM Antonia Biggs
Jan 19, 2021·Social Science & Medicine·Andrea M BertottiSkye A Miner
Feb 20, 2021·Contraception·Virginia Kuulei Berndt, Ann V Bell
May 1, 2021·International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health·Xiaojing FanDuolao Wang
Aug 3, 2021·Social Science & Medicine·Mireille Le GuenElise de La Rochebrochard
Oct 1, 2021·The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care : the Official Journal of the European Society of Contraception·Susanna SvahnMaria Ekstrand Ragnar
Apr 20, 2021·Qualitative Health Research·Jamie L Manzer, Ann V Bell

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