By: Love Wilhelmina Abanonave
A Principal Midwifery Officer at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Felicia Martey Dodoo has debunked the myth that family planning methods make women gain weight. According to her, weight changes experienced by individuals are often temporal and manageable, depending on their genetic makeup.
‘’It is both ways, you can either gain or lose the weight once you start but they’re both temporal and manageable so it doesn’t necessarily mean you will put on weight. It mostly depends on one’s genetic makeup since one person may gain weight after taking a pill and another would lose weight taking the same pill’’, she said.
Speaking on the ‘GTV Breakfast Show’ on Wednesday, August 13, 2025, Midwifery Officer Felicia Martey Dodoo debunked the myth linking family planning methods to weight gain. She clarified that any weight fluctuations are usually temporary and influenced by genetics, not the contraceptives themselves.
She also debunked the misconception that family planning methods directly affect blood pressure stating that one may have a pre-existing blood pressure which they were unaware of before the method so they attribute it to that.
She added that most methods like the IUDs can be safely inserted after labor or Caesarean section, and their effectiveness is not compromised in recent mothers.
“We’ve had cases where mothers would ask to insert the IUDs in them right after labor or Caesarian section so it’s a misconception that it fails when used immediately after child birth, the only downside to that is it inhibits the flow of breast milk”, she warned.
