With the increasing availability of technological methods to control fertility and plan family size, we can begin to ask why women prefer to use certain methods of medical contraception over others. For example, research in West Africa shows that women prefer methods that they see as less “damaging” to the body and that is why less “chemically” invasive methods (such as behavioural or traditional) are more popular there. When it comes to hormonal methods, choice between methods on offer may differ according to cultural values also. For example, Mexican women opt for the pill over the injection as it is seen as the less aggressive option. This is because once administered the injection must be left to run its course, unlike the pill, which a woman can simply
stop taking if she notices undesirable side effects. In Peru, where I undertook fieldwork for my Master’s thesis, women also favoured contraception that they did not perceive as disrupting to their “balanced menstrual flow”, with the injection seen as the most obstructive as it takes from one to three months to clear from the body once administered, and the women have no way of speeding up this process. you might then expect certain contraceptive preferences in communities where such beliefs about the body are found, as in the Andes.