Perception and use of reversible contraceptive methods in Germany – a social listening analysis

With a seemingly endless list of different contraceptive products on the market, it’s crucial for pharmaceutical companies to have the right evidence-based insights into how users perceive them and how their interest evolves over time. In this research study, our medical team analysed social media posts from Urbia, a German internet platform with the intention of finding out why some individuals choose to switch methods of contraception and better understanding the reasons behind this decision-making process.

Using data-driven social listening methods such as natural language processing – all handled in a GDPR compliant manner, of course - our team scraped posts made between 2016-2021 in two specific forums: “contraception” and “child-desire”. After analysing the relative frequency of mentions of different contraceptive methods, we also studied 1000 individual posts, noting method switches and the problems associated with individual methods of use.

The oral pill was the most frequently mentioned method of contraception followed by:

·??????Natural family planning (NFP) methods

·??????Condoms

·??????Hormonal coils

·??????Copper/gold coils

Our research indicates that over the course of the past five years, mentions of the pill dropped whilst, conversely, mentions of NFP and copper or gold coils increased. Further analysis of individual posts showed most women migrating from the pill to other non-hormonal methods such as NFP and condoms. Almost all migrations to NFP were from the pill and most migrations to non-hormonal intrauterine devices such as the coil were from hormonal methods. The most common problem associated with the pill and non-hormonal intrauterine devices was the presence of side effects.

With this study, our research team were able to show that social media serves as a useful tool to monitor contraceptive prevalence and attitudes within a large population in a very short span of time. Our findings provide policy makers an idea on the topics where more counselling and/or education may be required to help women and couples find a method of contraception best suited to their wants, needs, and preferences.

About Temedica

Temedica is a health insights company based in Munich. Since 2016, Temedica has been operating Europe's leading ecosystem for real world insights in the healthcare sector. Temedica's mission is to enable personalised and individualised medicine, thereby focusing on patients and their individual needs. The company achieves this by linking health-related data from various sources, which are processed into valuable insights in compliance with the GDPR.

Temedica is backed by a consortium of renowned investors with many years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, including the founding investors of BioNTech. For further information, please visit?https://temedica.com/.