Literature Review on Provision of Appropriate and Accessible ...

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Research carried out in Northern Ireland with 62 individuals with
learning disabilities sought to gather their knowledge, personal
experience and values and attitudes on a number of matters relating
to sexuality <strong>Literature</strong> and relationships <strong>Review</strong> on including Provision menstruation, of Appropriate and masturbation,
Accessible
intimacy, sex Support and the to law, People reproduction, with an Intellectual and sexual Disability health who (Simpson, are
Lafferty and Experiencing McConkey, 2006). Crisis Pregnancy Thirty-nine of the participants were aged
between 13 and 25, and 23 participants were aged between 26 and 40.
Interviewees’ knowledge of contraception and sexually transmitted
infections was generally lower than the other areas of knowledge. For
example, only 50 per cent knew of ways to prevent pregnancy – the
condom and the contraceptive pill were the most common responses.
Women tended to know more about contraception than men and there
were also significant differences with regard to knowledge about the
intrauterine device (IUD) and the contraceptive injection. Meanwhile, 18
per cent knew the meaning of birth control/contraception.
2.3.3 Decision-making and contraception
Historically, for the majority of women with intellectual disability,
decisions about contraceptive treatment were made by other people,
and they were not consulted. The 15 women with learning disabilities in
McCarthy’s (1998) study who had ever used contraception were asked
who had decided whether they should have it and which contraception to
use. Seven of the women said doctors had decided, two said their parents
had decided (one of these women appeared not to even know she had an
IUD in situ), two said staff in learning disability services had decided and
three did not know or could not remember. Only one woman said she had
made the decision for herself, which McCarthy describes as a shocking
fact, given the high levels of intellectual ability in the group (McCarthy,
1998: 568).
McCarthy argues that it is undeniably the case that some women with
learning disabilities would find making decisions about which type
of contraception to use very difficult and would also find it hard or
impossible to manage the practicalities of some methods. At the same
time, she asserts that many women with learning disabilities, (including
women in her own study) are not given sufficient or appropriate
information and support to make those choices themselves (McCarthy,
1998).