Team:Bielefeld-CeBiTec/Survey

Bielefeld-Cebitec-2020-Entrepeneurship

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Survey

Summary


Our product is intended to be used by a variety of people. Therefore it is important to identify customer needs with respect to the properties of our product. For this purpose, we conducted an online survey containing 50 questions. The results clarified how many people with uterus use contraception, by which method they use it and whether they are satisfied with it. It turned out that many participants see weak points in the existing contraceptive methods in terms of safety, health, comfort and well-being. Accordingly, in further questions the participants often stated that they were interested in our product WavySense.

Introduction



Key factors for the success and reception of our project are the opinions, thoughts, and views of our target audience (young people with uterus roughly aged 18-30) on contraceptives, as well as their general interest in new, alternative methods. As a result, the fundamental questions pertaining to this, that need to be answered, are how happy people are with currently available options and what they perceive to be the methods’ weaknesses. The answers to these questions will indicate to us how our finished product should look like, feel like and ultimately function to guarantee a broad interest.
So in the beginning of our project, we a conducted in late July a multi-question online survey in German language designed to gather relevant information which was advertised for example on social media, i.e. the team’s Instagram-page. 160 people took part in the survey over a period of two months. The scope was about 50 questions of which we will present 18 in detail here. The participation was completely anonymous and could be cancelled at any time if the questions were too intimate. This analysis looks at most, but not all, key questions that are especially relevant for the further development of Wavy Sense. Our questionnaire was approved by our university’s ethic council.


Question 1: How old are you?

Fig. 1: Age dispersion of the 160 participants. Ages ranging from 18 to 50 responded, the age group 20-25 being the most abundant.

All in all, 160 persons with uterus ranging in age from 18 to 50 answered the survey. Of those 160, the majority of persons with uterus were aged 20-25, with 23 being the biggest age group. This trend towards younger persons with uterus participating in the survey matches the age distribution of users of the social media platforms we used to advertise for the survey.

Question 2: Do you use contraceptives?

Fig. 2: Percentage of persons with uterus using/not using contraceptives.

Of the 160 participating persons with uterus, the overwhelming majority of 82.1% (130 persons with uterus) stated they use contraceptives, with only 17.9% (30 persons with uterus) not using them.
Seeing as most persons with uterus seem to use contraception, logical follow-up questions are what exact methods are used and how content the respondents are with each of them.

Question 3: Which contraceptive do you use?

Fig. 3: Pie chart showing which percentage of respondents uses which contraceptives. Hormone-based methods make up the majority.

Results show that over half of the persons with uterus prefer using hormone-based methods of contraception. We notably did not differentiate between birth control pills, vaginal ring, hormone implant, contraceptive patch or similar methods, jointly placing them all in the category “hormone-based contraceptives”.
Almost a third of participants use condoms, while only few persons with uterus (10%) stated getting a copper IUD and even fewer still (a mere 3.1%) make use of a calendar to practice natural contraception.
The results beg the question why most persons with uterus use hormonal means of contraception, which typically cause a lot of side-effects. Similarly, we were curious why natural contraception, which poses relatively few risks or side-effects if done right, is only used by a comparatively small percentage of respondents.
To this end, we consequently asked our participants to rate the individual methods in the categories security, well-being, comfortability, and health. The possible answers used the German grading system, ranging from “excellent” being the best to “insufficient” being the worst.

Question 4: How do you rate the following contraception methods?

Hormone-based contraception

Fig. 4: Subjective ratings of hormonal methods of contraception in the categories safety, comfortability, health and well-being.

The biggest perceived upside of hormonal methods seems to be the safety-aspect, which 66% of persons with uterus view as excellent. Similarly, the comfortability of this method is rated as high. Health and well-being on the other hand each show a notable decline in opinion, both aspects being viewed rather negatively, judging by the high amount of unfavorable ratings. Despite being the most popular solution, most persons with uterus do not appear to feel well using hormonal solutions. This indicates that safety is the most important factor in a person with uterus’s choice of contraceptive. The majority of respondents seem to be willing to trade health and well-being for a secure and comfortable to use method.

Copper UID

Fig. 5: Subjective ratings of a copper UID in the categories safety, comfortability, health and well-being.

The copper UID got very good to excellent ratings across all categories, with roughly half of all participants giving those marks. Especially the ratings for safety and comfortability are similar to those of the hormonal contraceptives. However, health and well-being were rated much higher for UID.
The very positive reception of the UID stands in stark contrast to the comparatively small user base of just ca. 10% of participants (see Fig. 3). A possible explanation for this contradiction could be the fact that getting a copper UID is a much more invasive process, compared to the simple act of taking daily pills.

Condoms

Fig. 6: Subjective ratings of condoms as contraceptives in the categories safety, comfortability, health and well-being.

Condoms rank similarly to hormonal methods with regards to perceived well-being. Additional benefits of condoms are favourable ratings in safety and especially excellent ratings in health. However, their biggest downside seems to be a lack of comfortability, as only 30% of persons with uterus gave top marks in this category.

Natural contraception

Fig. 7: Subjective ratings of natural contraception in the categories safety, comfortability, health and well-being.

Conception by natural means using a calendar received by far the best ratings in terms of health, with over two thirds of respondents giving the best mark of “excellent”. However, just as clear as the method’s upside are its downsides: Only very few persons with uterus seem to feel safe and comfortable using this method to prevent a pregnancy.
As this method was by far the least-used one (see Fig. 3), we asked our respondents about their biggest problems with natural contraception to find out why they personally were not using this method.

Question 5: What, for you, is the biggest issue regarding natural contraception?

Fig. 8: Pie chart showing what percentage of persons with uterus stated what as the method’s biggest issue.

As figure 8 shows, the greatest perceived issue persons with uterus have with this method is that they deem it to be too unsafe in addition to being too elaborate. All in all, the four contraceptive methods show very similar ratings in the well-being category, each being rated rather highly. Comfortability however was rated differently depending on which type of contraceptive was asked about: Non-invasive methods such as condoms or contraception by natural means generally showed a low comfortability, while invasive methods like the copper UID or hormonal implants received high ratings in this category.
In regards to health, condoms and the natural method were rated the highest, while hormonal contraceptives still received moderately high ratings. Birth control pills on the other hand did not get much praise in this category but ranked highest in safety. Conversely, contraception by natural means ranked lowest in safety while both hormonal methods and condoms were ranked in the middle.
It is to be noted that, while the majority of persons with uterus feel safest using hormonal methods, they seem to be aware of the many negative side-effects and rate them accordingly.
However, these ratings alone cannot fully explain the relations seen in figure 3.
This, in turn, poses the question which aspect of contraception persons with uterus prioritize over others. To this end, we asked our participants to rank the same four categories as before in order of perceived priority.

Question 6: What do you prioritize most in contraception?

Fig. 9: The participants were asked to rank the aspects safety, comfortability, health, and wellbeing in the order most important to them. The individual colors indicate the respondents’ placement of the individual aspect.

The majority of persons with uterus gave the following order, with 1st being the most important and 4th being the least important aspect: 1st – safety, 2nd – health, 3rd – well-being, 4th – comfortability.
Finally, combining these findings with the ratings of the different methods (see figures 4-7) enables us to explain the results of figure 3: Safety, by far, is the most important aspect to our participants. Consequently, most persons with uterus prefer hormonal means of contraception, as they believe them to be the safest of the offered methods (figures 4-7). Conversely, it seems that a contraceptive’s low perceived safety cannot be offset by generally positive ratings in health or comfortability, as is the case with the natural method.
As no product can ever fully satisfy all of its customers’ requirements, we consequently asked the participants which of the three aspects safety, comfortability and health they would see as least important in a trade-off situation.

Question 7: What is more important to you in a contraceptive?

Fig. 10: Participants were asked to decide which one of the aspects safety, comfortability or health are least important to them.

An overwhelming majority of persons with uterus (nearly 83%) stated that they would be willing to trade comfortability for a safe and healthy contraceptive. This is significant as, according to the respondents’ subjective feelings (figures 4-7), there currently is no single method that was rated very favourably in both safety and health. This strongly indicates the need and interest in new, alternative methods of contraception.
This niche, which is currently left open by ordinary contraceptives, is what WavySense seeks to occupy: It is our declared mission to improve the safety of the natural method of contraception (without drastic consequences for the other aspects) and thereby combining the method’s already very favourable ratings in comfortability with a feeling of adequate safety.
As there seems to be a tangible interest in new contraception methods, the following questions were directly focused on how we could further design WavySense to best fit persons with uterus’s needs.
One important aspect we must consider is the amount of time persons with uterus would be willing to spend on contraception.

Question 8: How much time would you be willing to use for contraception on a daily basis?

Fig. 11: Pie chart showing how much time the persons with uterus would be willing to spend on contraception on a daily basis.