A medic in Murang’a has called upon women to embrace long term family planning methods, as they are less demanding compared to short term methods.
The nurse manager at the Murang’a County Referral Hospital, Alice Gitahi, speaking at the facility during a free family planning and cervical cancer screening drive, noted that uptake of long term contraceptives has been lower than that of short term ones, mainly because of misconceptions.
“We are educating our clients on the advantages of long term methods over short term measures, so that they can make informed choices,” she said.
Gitahi noted that the short term methods are more demanding because the woman has to visit the clinic every month for the daily pills, or every three months for the Depo injection, while the long term methods, require the woman to visit the health facility less frequently.
“The short term contraceptives may be cheaper to acquire one off, but are more expensive and time consuming in the long run because the woman has to come to the facility every month, or every three months for the medication,” she stated.
“With long term methods you come for checkup after one month, then after six months and once a year after that,” she added.
Gitahi also explained that the hormonal content in short term contraceptives is higher, compared to long term contraceptives that release lower doses of hormones into the body over time.
Further, she noted that the return to fertility time following the use of long term contraceptives is shorter and almost immediate, while women using short term contraceptives may take longer to conceive again.
“Women return to fertility after using long term contraceptives almost immediately, but with the short term family planning methods, one may take from a few months to several years for the next conception cycle,” she said.
The nurse manager also dispelled most of the misconceptions surrounding long term contraceptives noting some of them were not factual.
“There have been myths that long term contraceptives like implants or Intra Uterine Devices (IUD) can move from where they were inserted in the body to other parts of the body, even though there are no documented cases,” Gitahi said.
She challenged women to only seek the correct information from official healthcare providers, so that they can choose a family planning method that suits them.
Rose Njenga, from the maternal health department at the hospital, who was leading the cervical cancer screening services observed that many women had turned up for the free cancer screening, which is important in the fight against the menace.
“We decided to give back to the society by setting a day for cervical cancer screening following the end of the cervical cancer awareness month in January,” she said.
Njenga noted that cervical cancer is treatable if discovered early and called upon more women to get screened regularly.
“If we find lesions during the Visual Inspection with Acetic acid (VIA) tests, we treat them immediately, and only if it is beyond 75 percent, do we refer the client for pap smear,” she said, adding that all women above 50 years old should get pap smears.
She underscored the need for women to visit health facilities for cervical screening voluntarily saying although the process may be uncomfortable, it is still necessary.
Njenga further called upon parents and guardians of girls aged 10–14 years to ensure they get the HPV vaccine, which is one way of preventing cervical cancer.
By Purity Mugo
