Contraception use in the United States is stable, with almost two-thirds of the nation’s 62 million reproductive-age women using a product or procedure to avoid pregnancy, new federal data say.
The top products in current use were a birth control pill, condoms and “long-acting reversible contraceptives,” such as intrauterine devices (IUDs), the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) said in a report released Thursday.
Use of IUDs and implants has grown significantly in recent years, from about 3.8 percent of reproductive-age women to 7.2 percent, said Kimberly Daniels, NCHS social demographer and lead author of the report.
About 16 percent of reproductive-age women — many aged 35 to 44 — said they got a sterilizing procedure to avoid getting pregnant, the agency said, citing data collected in the 2011-2013 National Survey of Family Growth.
Some 38 percent of women of reproductive age said they were not using contraceptives.
Many of these women said they were not currently sexually active, were trying to get pregnant, were already pregnant or recovering from pregnancy. However, about 7 percent of women said they were sexually active but didn’t use contraception.
The birth control pill, which was introduced to the public in the early 1960s, remained the most common method to prevent pregnancy — some 16 percent of the 5,601 women surveyed by the NCHS said they were currently using the pill.
Oral contraceptives were most popular with teens and women in their 20s and early 30s. The 25-to-34 age group was most likely to opt for a long-acting reversible contraceptive.
About 9 percent of women reported current use of the male condom as birth control, while 4 percent said they were using Depo-Provera shots or a contraceptive ring or patch.
Despite ongoing lawsuits, a measure in the Affordable Care Act that requires private insurance companies to provide approved contraceptives for free is largely in effect.
There is also a push by some health care organizations to make birth control pills available without a prescription.
“Birth control is an essential component of women’s health care” and “ACOG supports making oral contraceptives” available over-the-counter, Dr. John C. Jennings, president of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in September.
The Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve oral contraceptives for over-the-counter status, although it has given the green light to the Plan B One-Step emergency contraception product.
However, when women are asked why they stopped taking birth control products, they rarely cite cost, access or insurance.
The main reason women discontinued taking the pill was because they “had side effects,” said two separate studies issued by NCHS in 2010 and 2013. Many women also feared the possible side effects of the pill or disliked how it changed their menstrual cycles, said the studies.
About half the users of contraceptive “patches” stop using it, often because of unwanted side effects or difficulty to use. Other women stopped Depo-Provera shots because of ill effects on their bodies.
Relatively few women stop using male condoms, but when they do, their top two reasons were very personal: either their partners didn’t like using condoms or condoms “decreased your sexual pleasure.”
Three percent or fewer of women said they stopped taking their birth control products because of cost, access or insurance, the 2010 and 2013 NCHS reports said.
• Cheryl Wetzstein can be reached at cwetzstein@washingtontimes.com.
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