Ethnic Chinese women's perceptions about condoms, withdrawal and rhythm methods of birth control

To gain a better understanding of ethnic Chinese women's perceptions and experiences of using barrier and rhythm methods of contraception in order to improve contraceptive counseling at abortion clinics.

Qualitative descriptive study.

Urban abortion clinic.

Forty ethnic Chinese women presenting for abortion.

Data were collected in semi-structured interviews by one interviewer who is fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese. Transcribed interviews were systematically analyzed to identify salient themes.

All of the women interviewed had used condoms (none with spermicide), 20 had used rhythm and 17 withdrawal, usually a combination of two or three of these methods. Many women noted that these methods are under male control and talked about the difficulty negotiating their use with partners. The majority of women using rhythm were unable to correctly identify "safe periods."