Adeus, hormônios: uma análise socioecológica sobre o consumo de métodos contraceptivos não hormonais

Abstract

Background and purpose: Most women in the reproductive age group in a stable relationship use some form of contraception. A recent movement of criticism of the pill and other hormonal contraceptives has been gaining strength in recent years, in which women have changed their way of consuming and demanded methods and products more suited to their desires and needs. Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the behavior of female consumption of non-hormonal contraceptives, based on the subsystems of the Socioecological Model: Individual, Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem and Macrosystem. Method: It was based on a qualitative approach, in which data were collected from a Facebook group composed of more than 130 thousand women and which addresses non-hormonal contraception. Data treatment and analysis were performed through Content Analysis a and later application of the Centering Resonance Analysis (CRA) technique. Originality/relevance: Although some non-hormonal contraceptive methods have existed for some decades, the current debate about them is a recent phenomenon, even because it is still a taboo subject in Brazilian society. The difficulty in finding suitable contraceptive methods is one of the main, if not the main, cause of unwanted pregnancies. Therefore, it is clear that research is empirically relevant, as it can bring insights to women, public policy managers and the contraceptive market. Furthermore, it was a pioneer in adapting an automated tool to use CRA for Brazilian Portuguese texts, allowing the analysis of a large volume of data. Results: This study showed that the context of consumption of non-hormonal contraceptive methods involves not only the methods themselves, but different aspects related to relationships, menstrual cycle, products and treatments, body and aesthetics, diseases, institutions, pleasure, pregnancy, mental health, as well as rape and abuse. Most of the themes were concentrated in the Individual subsystem, that is, they reflected experiences, experiences, opinions and phenomena that occurred at the individual context level. However, depending on the analyzed aspect, the same theme can be understood based on the individual or from the other subsystems of the Socioecological Model. It is also noteworthy that for some phenomena, notably those experienced not as an abstract political discussion of ideas, but as a concrete personal experience, the relationship with time, more than with other personal or institutional entities, emerges as the core for understanding behavior. Theoretical/methodological contributions: The work presents a wide taxonomy on non-hormonal contraception, which goes beyond conventional essentially medical or individualistic approaches. In this sense, it directly benefits women, as it allows a more holistic understanding of a topic of interest to a good part of the group of childbearing age. The research also improves and applies the socioecological approach in Social Marketing for non-hormonal contraception, highlighting the need to process the application of the Socioecological Model in Marketing. Furthermore, the empirical results deepen the theory of Contraception, unfolding aspects already consolidated in the literature such as menstruation, various products used, body and aesthetics, among others.