The Prevalence and Determinants of Using Withdrawal to Avoid Pregnancy in Tabriz, Iran

Despite the increasing knowledge about family planning and modern contraceptive methods, as well as high failure rates of the traditional method, a significant percentage of couples use withdrawal for contraception. Accordingly, the present study mainly aimed to investigate the determinants of using withdrawal to avoid pregnancy in Tabriz. The sample of the study included 383 married women aged 15-49 years. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were employed to determine factors associated with using withdrawal as a contraceptive method. Based on the results, about 19.5% of the women were relying on withdrawal. In addition, 55% reported that they were currently using a modern method to avoid pregnancy while the remaining 25.5% used no method in order to prevent contraception. The results of multivariate logistic regression demonstrated that university-educated couples with no child who were within the age range of 15-24 and born in urban areas were more likely to use withdrawal rather than modern contraceptive methods (P<0.05). In general, the rate of employing the traditional method in Iran and, especially in Tabriz is increasing. Regarding higher proportion of withdrawal use among higher educated women due to the fear of side effects resulted from other methods, family planning providers and reproductive health services should be sensitive to the women’s concern and provide programs to decrease the unmet need of family planning.