Proportion of women in West Sussex on contraception fell by more than a third following pandemic

The proportion of women in West Sussex on long-term contraception fell by more than a third following the pandemic, new figures show.

It follows the national trend, with the figures revealing 9% fewer women had access tolong-acting reversible contraception in 2022 than in 2019, before the pandemic.

MSI Reproductive Choices, a non-governmental organisation providing reproductive healthcare, said while Covid-19 added pressure on healthcare services, many of the issues go back even further, with sexual and reproductive healthcare severely underfunded.

Office for Health Improvement and Disparities figures show 41.4 per 1,000 women in West Sussex aged between 15 and 44 were prescribed long-acting reversible contraception in 2022 – which includes the non-hormonal copper coil, hormonal coil, and the hormonal implant.

This was significantly down from 65.3 in 2019 and a decrease from 42.3 per 1,000 women the year before.

Across England, 44.1 per 1,000 women had a prescription for LARC in 2022. It was up from 41.8 per 1,000 women in 2021, but remained below pre-pandemic levels of 49.2 per 1,000.

However, Simphiwe Sesane, MSI Reproductive Choice's UK contraceptive and sexual health nurse consultant, said sexual and reproductive healthcare has been overstretched since before the pandemic.

She added: “A perfect storm of cuts, fragmented commissioning and an ageing workforce moving into retirement mean all too often I speak to people who have become pregnant while on contraception waiting lists. It’s simply not good enough.

“Finding the right contraception is transformative, yet too many are still struggling to get the information and support they need, particularly for long-acting methods like the coil and implant.

“These are some of the most effective ways of preventing unintended pregnancy and lack of access will no doubt be contributing to the unprecedented demand we are seeing for abortion care.”