Tampon Users More Likely to Choose Vaginal Ring over Oral Contraceptive Pills

Women have a wider choice of contraceptive methods than ever, which sometimes complicates their decision-making. In assisting women with choices of hormonal contraceptives, some clinicians might assume that women who are uncomfortable touching their genitals will not find the vaginal ring acceptable. In a cross-sectional analysis of a subset of participants in the Contraceptive Choice Project (a prospective observational study of 10,000 women in the Saint Louis area who use contraception), investigators sought to determine whether women who use tampons are more likely to select the contraceptive vaginal ring over combined oral contraceptive pills (OCPs).

Of 311 women who chose either the contraceptive vaginal ring (156) or OCPs (155) as thei…