Description:
Relevance of the research: Family planning involves the decisions after passing of which the couples of fertile age can have the number of children they want and plan the time when they wish to conceive or avoid conceiving. The used contraceptives and the treatment of the couples infertility assist in reaching it. Illegal abortion is the most frequent result of unplanned pregnancy, due to which about 80,000 women die in the world annually, even 95 per cent of them in the developed countries. Quite a big number of women in Lithuania do not use any contraceptives and the birth rate in Lithuania is low, so it is considered that the number of unplanned pregnancies in Lithuania is quite large and an abortion is a vital family planning means. Following the data of Health Information Centre of Institute of Hygiene in 2015 10.76 abortions were performed on 1,000 women of fertile age (15-49) in Lithuania. The aim of the research – to analyse the choice of the methods of family planning of the students of the 5th and the 3rd year of X college and the factors influencing them. The tasks of the research: 1. To describe the indications and contraindications of the contraceptive methods. 2. To establish the choice of the methods of family planning of the freshmen of X college and the factors influencing them. 3. To establish the choice of the methods of family planning of the students of the 3rd year of X college and the factors influencing them. 4. To compare the choice of the methods of family planning of the students of the 1st and the 3rd year of X college and the factors influencing them. The methods and cohort of the research. A quantitative research in “X” college has been conducted. The data were gathered with the help of anonymous questionnaire since 1 November 2018 till 30 November 2018. During the research 231 questionnaire was distributed among the students of X college X faculty, 120 questionnaires among the 1st year students and 111 questionnaires among the 3rd year students, 196 students participated in the research: 98 students of the 1st year and 98 students of the 3rd year. Results, conclusions. During the research it has been established that the students of the 3rd year choose artificial family planning methods more often and the students of the 1st year choose
natural family planning methods. Condoms are the most popular among both years, coitus interruptus is in the second place, however, the freshmen choose it twice more often than the 3rd year students. The greater majority of all the questioned use family planning methods because they are too young to become parents, would not be able to maintain their family yet, first of all they would like to finish the studies and only then to create a family, want to protect themselves against sexually transmitted diseases, however, more third-year students than freshmen want to plan family growth. The students of the 1st and the 3rd year not always use artificial family planning methods, as most often they forget to buy them and nearly twice bigger part of freshmen than the third-year students does not know what means are the best/most suitable.