Spain: increase in EC use

November 2020. The Spanish Society for Contraception (SEC) just published the findings of its annual National Contraception Survey 2020, based on phone interviews conducted among 1800 women of reproductive age, between July and August 2020.

With regards to emergency contraception (EC) use, 38% of the women surveyed reported having ever used EC at some point of their lives. The percentage exceeds 40% among women between ages of 20 to 39. In previous surveys conducted by SEC in 2018 and 2011, 30% and 14% of the respondents, respectively, reported having ever used EC.

This shows a clear trend of increased use since prescription requirements were removed in 2009. This trend has also been observed in other European countries such as Italy (see Ministry of Health report of 2018). To our knowledge, only Norway has registered a decrease in EC use in the past few years. According to local experts, this is likely due to efforts to make ongoing contraception more accessible, and to a strong uptake of long acting reversible contraception methods (LARCs) among younger women.