Compounded progesterone and the Behavioral Model of Health Services Use

Compounded progesterone (P₄) is a product that, from a clinical experience-based perspective, effectively relieves a range of symptoms. In contrast, from a conventional evidence-based medicine perspective, P₄ is ineffective. As P₄ is not a product prescribed by conventional medicine, it is unlikely to be prescribed by family doctors, which increases the barriers to utilization. Utilization of medicines is influenced by many contextual and individual characteristics. The Behavioral Model of Health Services Use provides a multidimensional framework to conceptualize utilization of health services including medicine use. The 4 main components of this model are: contextual characteristics, individual characteristics, health behaviors and outcomes. This paper reports on the application of The Behavioral Model of Health Services Use to medicines and shows how it can be applied to the use of P₄. The model enables some of the positive reinforcement that contributes to women continuing to use P₄ to be explained. The Behavioral Model of Health Services Use was found to offer the potential to identify and then address issues with access to prescription medicines.