Introduction:

Sexual and reproductive education can prevent or reduce any physical or mental harm, or both, caused by risky sexual practices and inadequate use of contraceptive methods.

Objective:

To describe the use of emergency contraception among female university students and their awareness regarding the harms of these methods for their health.

Methods:

A descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted, from April to October 2021, of 372 women over 18 years of age, enrolled in universities located in Medellin, Colombia, who were selected through non-probabilistic sampling. The information was obtained through a survey, which included variables related to the use of emergency contraception and the awareness of its harms.

Results:

In the series, 67.7% of the young women had used emergency contraceptives, of whom 8.7% reported consuming up to 3 levonorgestrel pills per month and 0.8% more than 10 during a year, while 97.8% considered that this type of method affects their health. Among the main adverse effects were irregular periods (65.8%), nausea (31.7%), vomiting (31.7%), migraine (3.2%) and mood changes (25.4%).

Conclusions:

Although most of female university students who used emergency contraceptives were guided by medical recommendations, a small group did so inappropriately, which was associated with a low perception of the health harms of this method.

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