Self-administration with UniJect® of the once-a-month injectable contraceptive Cyclofem®

The objective of this study was to evaluate women's acceptance of and ability to self-administrate the injectable contraceptive Cyclofem(R) using prefilled UniJect(R) devices. A total of 102 women were invited to participate in the study. Fourteen women (13.7%) refused to participate. Of the remaining 88 women, 32 women (31.4%) consented to participate and were trained using oranges but were still afraid of the procedure and ultimately refused to self-administer the injections. Only 56 women (55%) ultimately self-injected Cyclofem with UniJect. They performed a total of 144 injections, all of them on the ventral side of the thigh. When nurses evaluated women's ability to activate the devices, they found that more than 80% were succesful in both the group of women that later self-administered the injections and the group that did not. The evaluation of the self-administered injection technique showed that more than 90% of the women correctly self-administered the contraceptive using UniJect. With respect to the opinion of the women about the self-administration of the contraceptive, more than 50% (32 of 56) of women who self-injected preferred to self-administer the injection and said that they wished to continue with the self-administration, one-third (17) reported that they were afraid, and seven women (12.5%) expressed the opinion that the injection in the thigh was more painful than the administration in the buttocks or arm. In conclusion, our study showed that women can be trained to successfully self-administer the monthly injectable contraceptive Cyclofem and generally respond positively to UniJect. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.