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Latest Women’s Health News<\/h3>\n
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![\"News](\"https:\/\/media.healthday.com\/Images\/icimages\/birth_control1217.jpg\"\/)
By Steven Reinberg<\/b>
HealthDay Reporter<\/i><\/p>\n
TUESDAY, Oct. 20, 2020 (HealthDay News)<\/p>\n
Most American women between 15 and 49 years of age use birth control<\/a>, according to a new U.S. government report.<\/p>\n Between 2017 and 2019, 65% of those women used some form of contraception<\/a>, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>.<\/p>\n “This report provides this unique snapshot of all women of reproductive age at a point in time,” said lead researcher Kimberly Daniels. She’s a demographic statistician at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) in Hyattsville, Md.<\/p>\n The most common types of birth control<\/a> were female sterilization (18%), oral contraceptive<\/a> pills (14%), long-acting reversible contraception<\/a>, or LARCs (10%), and male condoms<\/a> (8%).<\/p>\n LARCs — which include intrauterine devices and under-the-skin implants — were most popular among women in their 20s and 30s. Among 20- to 29-year-olds, 14% used LARCs, as did 13% of women in their 30s. LARCS were the method of choice for 6% of 15- to 19-year-olds and 7% of women in their 40s, the findings showed.<\/p>\n Hispanic and Black women were more likely to rely on condoms<\/a> (11%), compared with white women (7%), the researchers found.<\/p>\n And women with more education preferred contraceptive<\/a> pills over sterilization, the study found.<\/p>\n “The less commonly used methods in terms of percentages would be natural family planning<\/a> and diaphragms,” Daniels said.<\/p>\n The last time Daniels looked at contraceptive use was 2018, and the most common methods are still the same. Understanding contraceptive use across populations sheds light on fertility<\/a> patterns, including birth rates and unintended pregnancies<\/a>, she said.<\/p>\n The report was published Oct. 20 in the CDC’s NCHS Data Brief<\/i>.<\/p>\n Dr. Jill Rabin, co-chief of ambulatory care and obstetrics and gynecology at Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y., reviewed the findings.<\/p>\n “Contraception is an individual choice which is dynamic and changes with people’s lives and the desire for fertility<\/a> or needing to protect against an unintended pregnancy<\/a>,” Rabin said.<\/p>\n Half of all pregnancies<\/a> in the United States are unintended — but that doesn’t mean “unwanted,” Rabin said.<\/p>\n “A significant portion of people who are not using contraception are either seeking fertility or not actively seeking to become pregnant<\/a>, but if they did become pregnant<\/a>, they would be happy,” she said.<\/p>\n Many people who don’t use birth control<\/a> are LGBTQ or don’t have heterosexual sex, she added.<\/p>\n One of the main barriers for women who want contraception is cost, Rabin said. Whether a woman has health insurance or not can determine what type of birth control<\/a> is available to her.<\/p>\n Condoms are cheap and readily available, but birth control pills<\/a> and LARCs require a prescription and are costly, which limits their availability to many poor and uninsured women, Rabin said. “And abortion is not a method of birth control,” she added.<\/p>\n While effective in preventing pregnancy<\/a>, Rabin cautioned that contraceptives do not protect against sexually transmitted infections (STIs).<\/p>\n “The STI<\/a> rate is way too high. Even condoms are not 100% effective against sexually transmitted infections,” she said.<\/p>\n ![\"MedicalNews\"](\"https:\/\/images.medicinenet.com\/images\/HealthDay\/healthday.png\")
Copyright \u00a9 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n
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