The contraceptive market - Italy

1.1 Definition and scope of study

Contraception refers to all methods used by men or women to make sexual intercourse sterile.

While the contraceptive pill remains the main method of contraception, there are many other means of contraception of local or general action and varying effectiveness and constraints:

·      Local action methods (avoid pregnancy at the time of intercourse): male or female condom, spermicide, diaphragm, cervical cap

·      Hormonal methods: hormonally active substances of the estrogen or progestin type (pill, implant, injection, vaginal ring, patch, hormonal intrauterine device)

·      Surgical methods: definitive methods by laparoscopic or hysteroscopic means in women and by scrotal means in men.

·      Natural methods: methods that do not use external elements to regulate fertility (observation of the woman's menstrual cycle, Ogino method, calendar method, abstinence method, etc.).

·      Male methods: method of male thermal contraception using artificial cryptorchidism, the male pill

·      After intercourse emergency contraception (morning-after pill, two-day pill and copper intrauterine device).

Globally, the contraceptives market size was $22.49 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $30.15 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 5.5% during the forecast period.  

In Italy, the contraceptive market is also considered to be growing even though Italy was still ranked last in Europe for contraceptive use in 2019.

It is estimated that in Italy hormonal contraception is used by about 13.6-20.9% of the population, a rather low figure when compared to other European countries (for example, to use this method in the Netherlands is about 51.9% of the population while the European average is around 21.4%). 

According to a study conducted by ISTAT, the preferred methods of contraception for Italians are: the condom (42.4%), followed by the pill (24.3%) and, thirdly, coitus interruptus (17.5%), an almost totally ineffective method that allows us to understand the misinformation about contraceptive methods among many Italians. 

The region in which the contraceptive pill is most widely used is Sardinia.