Introducing new products provides a key opportunity to not only expand the range of contraceptive options for women and adolescent girls, but also to strengthen family planning delivery systems for all methods.
This brief details the strong body of evidence and experience with self-injection of DMPA-SC in low-resource settings, including how the practice can reduce access-related barriers, improve contraceptive continuation, and enhance women’s autonomy.
This brief lists key references and resources from the evidence base on DMPA-SC. Pair this with the Evidence at-a-glance brief if your target decision-maker would like to have access to the data in that handout.
This brief offers quick facts on the benefits of DMPA-SC; the product’s potential for empowering women and adolescent girls; the product’s availability; and how subcutaneous DMPA is different from intramuscular DMPA (DMPA-IM).
Subcutaneous DMPA (DMPA-SC) is an innovative and easy-to-use injectable that is transforming contraceptive access, use, and choice for women and adolescent girls. Advocates have an important role to play in making sure their country’s policies and funding support access to a broad method mix, including new options like DMPA-SC.
The Advocacy Pack for Subcutaneous DMPA is designed to accelerate your advocacy efforts. It consists of evidence-based materials, in English and French, for advocates to use both for their own strategy development and for direct advocacy with decision-makers. Materials are customizable and unbranded so that you can tailor them to your country context.
Along with the World Health Organization (WHO) Medical eligibility criteria for contraceptive use, this is one of two evidence-based guidance documents of the WHO’s initiative to develop and implement family planning guidelines for national programs. This document provides guidance for how to use contraceptive methods safely and effectively once they are deemed to be medically appropriate. Safety considerations include common barriers to safe, correct and consistent use of contraception and the benefits of preventing unintended or unwanted pregnancy.
Along with the World Health Organization (WHO) Selected practice recommendations for contraceptive use this is one of two evidence-based guidance documents of the WHO’s initiative to develop and implement family planning guidelines for national programs. This publication provides guidance to national family planning and reproductive health programs in the preparation of guidelines for the delivery of contraceptive services. The guide provides information on the safety and use of intramuscular and subcutaneous DMPA.
Shaping Equitable Market Access for Reproductive Health (SEMA Reproductive Health) hosted a September 29 webinar to shed light on Dalberg Advisors’ analysis of the challenges low and middle-income countries face in procuring sexual and reproductive health (SRH) goods. Panelists shared their experiences overcoming challenges to sustainable SRH markets in their respective countries. The webinar recording, Q&A, and resources are available online.
Results 4 Informed Choice is a resource for HIV and family planning program implementers, government representatives, advocates and journalists as they respond to the results from the Evidence for Contraceptive Options and HIV Outcomes (ECHO) trial.
The trial results, released June 13, 2019, showed that none of the three contraceptive methods in the trial increased the risk of HIV acquisition. Other findings, including high HIV incidence across the study arms and broad acceptability and effectiveness of the contraceptive methods, are a call to action for greater attention to and investment in women’s health, HIV prevention and contraceptive choice. Full findings from the study can be found in the Lancet article.
The tools, resources and data are intended to help stakeholders plan and execute their response so that women have all the information they need to make an informed choice in adopting and using a contraceptive method and protecting themselves from HIV.
This webinar held on February 23, 2022 was hosted by Expanding Effective Contraceptive Options (EECO) led by WCG Cares with PSI and the DMPA-SC Access Collaborative led by PATH in partnership with JSI. The discussion focused on the introduction and scale up of self-care family planning methods in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting lessons and best practices from DMPA-SC scale-up and Caya® diaphragm pilot introductions in French-speaking West Africa. Presenters from Benin, Niger, and Senegal shared successes and challenges. This webinar was offered in French.