Encountering, navigating and resisting constraints to agency

Scottish women’s accounts of contraceptive dissatisfaction and discontinuation

Bibliographic Data

ID24234202
AuthorsKristina Saunders, Lily Roberts (0000-0003-0785-4634)
Year2026
Pages100883
Publication date2026-10-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSSM - Qualitative Research in Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2667-3215 • E-ISSN: 2667-3215
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.ssmqr.2026.100883
OpenAlexW7221656740
LanguageEN
References cited64

Declining rates of hormonal contraception in Western counties have been attributed to the influence of online misinformation that stokes “hormone hesitancy “and leads to discontinuation of hormonal methods and rising distrust in healthcare professionals. Drawing on data from two studies using oral histories and futures interviews with participants living in two Scottish cities, we problematise framings of hormone hesitancy and online misinformation as the cause of pharmaceutical contraceptive dissatisfaction and discontinuation. Participants’ encounters with, and navigation of, informational, heteronormative and embodied constraints in the Scottish contraceptive care context are reflective and constitutive of epistemic injustice and the reinforcement of gendered contraceptive responsibilisation that diminished their agency. Yet, we also find that participants attempted to resist these constraints when discontinuing pharmaceutical contraception, and through subverting and challenging dominant articulations of contraceptive misinformation and risk that formed part of agentic strategies.

contraceptive care · contraceptive discontinuation · contraceptive dissatisfaction · epistemic injustice · Heteronormativity · Hormonal contraception · online misinformation · women's agency · Gender, Health, and Social Inequality · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Reproductive Health and Contraception

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