The DHS Program

An Analytical Insight into a Traditional Method: Withdrawal Use in Turkey (English) 

Document Type

Further Analysis

Publication Topic(s)

Family Planning

Country(s)

Turkey

Survey

Turkey DHS, 1998

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Ergöçmen, Banu Akadi, Ismet Koç, Elif Kurtulus Yigit, Pinar Senlet, and Elaine Roman. 2001. An Analytical Insight into a Traditional Method: Withdrawal Use in Turkey. DHS Further Analysis Reports No. 36. Calverton, Maryland, USA: ORC Macro.

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Publication Date

December 2001

Publication ID

FA36

Abstract:

One of the oldest contraceptive methods used to control fertility is coitus interruptus or withdrawal, as it is more commonly known. The method’s history probably goes back to the discovery that ejaculation into the vagina caused pregnancy. The method has been widely practiced throughout the world history, playing an important role in controlling fertility prior to the inception of modern contraceptives. In Turkey, couples more often adopt traditional than modern contraceptives, and 99 percent of traditional methods users have sued withdrawal. Among currently married women, 24 percent report current use of withdrawal. In comparison, 20 percent are relying on the IUD, the second most widely used method in Turkey. Turkey’s rate of withdrawal use is among the highest in the world. Only the rates in select countries in Eastern Europe such as Bulgaria at 38 percent and Romania at 35 percent surpass it. In the developing world, rates are generally substantially lower rates, with Mauritius at 16 percent and Vietnam at 11 percent having among the highest levels of withdrawal use. Turkey’s high prevalence of withdrawal use is noteworthy for a number of reasons. First, approximately two-thirds of currently married women in Turkey do not want to have any more children and an additional 14% would like to postpone their next birth. The high failure rates associated with withdrawal means that women who seek to control childbearing by using the method will frequently experience unplanned pregnancies that often end in an induced abortion.