Knowledge and use of hormonal emergency contraception in Finland

We studied the knowledge and use of hormonal emergency contraception (EC) in Finland by mailing a questionnaire to a national sample of 3000 women aged 18-44 years (response rate 74%). Ten percent of the women aged under 25 and 4% of all respondents had sometimes used EC. Unmarried women were more likely to report having used hormonal EC than were married women, and nulliparous women reported more use than did parous women. However, no statistically significant difference in EC use among women with or without previous abortion history was observed. Older women were less aware of EC than of other methods; only one-third of the women aged over 35 knew about this method. Current contraceptive practices were otherwise similar among ever-users and never-users of EC, but EC users more commonly reported using condom together with oral contraceptives or IUD. Nobody reported using EC as her only contraceptive method. Our findings suggest that EC is appropriately used in Finland, but more information about use of the method is still needed.