Examining the Reproductive Health Behaviors of Women with Chronic Disease

Aim: This study was conducted to examine the reproductive health behaviors of women with chronic disease. Material and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted between 15 October 2016-15 October 2017 with 160 married women who applied to internal medicine outpatient clinics or were hospitalized in internal diseases clinics of a private hospital in Adıyaman and were diagnosed with at least one chronic disease. During the study period, the total number of women with chronic disease in reproductive age who was applied to the internal medicine outpatient clinics and admitted to the internal clinics was 297. In the study, no sampling was performed and all women who met the sample selection criteria and accepted the study were included in the study. The data were collected using “Participant Information Form”. Percentage, arithmetic mean and standard deviation were used in statistical analysis. The necessary permission was received from the institution where the study was conducted and ethical approval was received from the Non-interventional Clinical Studies Ethics Committee. Results: 88.1% of the women who participated in the study reported that having a disease did not affect their decision of having a child in the future, 40% of them had pregnancy after being diagnosed with the illness, 63.8% of them had shortened the duration of breastfeeding due to their disease, 13.8% of them had a perinatal loss after the diagnosis and 10% of them reported that their sexual life was affected because of their illness. In addition, it was determined that 71.9% of women currently use a modern contraceptive method and 26.5% of women who use modern methods prefer condom. Conclusion: The study results showed that having a chronic disease did not affect the desire of having children, shortening the duration of breastfeeding and the high rate of contraceptive use in women with chronic disease. It is recommended that nurses should be more susceptible to possible reproductive health problems in women with chronic diseases, consider reproductive health problems more carefully and provide the necessary additional health care.