About two-thirds of U.S. women used contraception in years 2017-2019, according to the National Survey of Family Growth.
In the month the survey was conducted, 65.3% of women ages 15-49 reported using some form of contraception in the past 3 months, most commonly female sterilization (18.1%), birth control pills (14%), long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARC, 10.4%), or male condoms (8.4%), reported Kimberly Daniels, PhD, and Joyce C. Abma, PhD, of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) in Hyattsville, Maryland, in an NCHS data brief.
“Those four methods alone are used by about 50% of all women,” Daniels told MedPage Today. “The age range [studied] represents 72 million women, so 36 million women in the U.S. are using those four methods.”
Of the 34.7% of women not using contraception, 16.8% said it was because they were not sexually active in the past 3 months and 7.8% said it was for pregnancy-related reasons, Daniels and Abma reported.
That leaves 7% of women in the survey who were sexually active but not using contraception, they noted.
Some of the 16.8% of women who were not using contraception and were not sexually active at the time of the survey could become so later on, commented David Eisenberg, MD, MPH, an ob/gyn and family planning specialist at Washington University in St. Louis, who was not involved with the research.
“You have more than one-third of women not using a regular contraception method, and a fair number of them are at risk for pregnancy if they’re not using a contraceptive method and enter into vaginal intercourse with a male partner,” Eisenberg told MedPage Today. “That contributes to the consistent and challenging problem of the high rate of unintended pregnancies in the U.S.”
In 2015-2017, 64.9% of women reported using contraception in the National Survey of Family Growth. The most common methods used in the prior survey were also female sterilization (18.6%), birth control pills (12.6%), LARC (10.3%), and male condoms (8.7%).
While some have speculated that stay-at-home measures enforced to prevent the spread of COVID-19 may lead to a post-pandemic baby boom, others have argued that the disproportionate rate at which women are experiencing economic and mental health problems associated with the pandemic may lead to a decline in pregnancies in the coming years.
Eisenberg said many of his patients can’t obtain their preferred contraceptive method because of disruptions caused by the pandemic. For example, some who want long-acting birth control such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) or implants have not been able to get them because they require in-person visits. Instead, they have resorted to methods that can be prescribed through telehealth, such as pills, which are less effective, Eisenberg said.
In a survey conducted by the Guttmacher Institute in the first week of May, many women reported wanting to delay childbearing or have fewer children altogether, but also said they were worried about accessing or affording contraception.
“Many patients who have lost their jobs have lost their medical insurance and therefore have not been able to afford the out-of-pocket expense of their desired method like the implant or IUD or even prescription birth control pills, patches, or rings,” Eisenberg said. “Now, they are switching to what they can afford or seeking care in different locations.”
The estimates in the current report are based on 6,141 women who responded to the survey and weighted to reflect the U.S. population as of July 2018.
In the survey, sterilization increased with age, with fewer than 3% of women under 29 reporting sterilization compared with 39.1% of women in their 40s. In contrast, pill use decreased with age, from 19.5% among women 15-19 to 6.5% of women in their 40s.
Condom use tended to be lower among women in their 20s and 30s compared with women in their teenage years and 40s. In contrast, the use of LARC was more common among women between 20-39 than it was for women between 15-19 and 40-49.
Overall contraceptive use increased with age from 38.7% among teenagers to 74.8% among women in their 40s. However, 67.6% of teenagers were not sexually active, compared to 20.9% of women between 20 and 49.
Contraceptive use was also significantly higher among white women than it was among Hispanic and Black women (69.2% vs 60.5% and 61.4%, respectively). This difference may be attributable to higher rates of birth control pill use, which was significantly higher for white women than it was for Hispanic and Black women (17.8% vs 7.9% and 8.1%), the authors said.
The use of LARC and female sterilization did not significantly differ by race, although condom use was significantly lower among white women than it was among Hispanic and Black women (7% vs 10.5% and 11%, respectively).
Overall contraceptive use did not differ across varying levels of education, but certain forms of contraception did. For example, 39.9% of women without a high school diploma or GED had undergone permanent sterilization, versus 12.5% for women with a bachelor’s or higher. In contrast, birth control pills and LARC were more commonly used among women with higher education than women with a high school diploma or GED.
Last Updated October 20, 2020
Source: MedicalNewsToday.com
