Study finds contraception has been used by almost all sexually experienced women

Almost all sexually-experienced women of reproductive age have used contraception, according to a study published online Dec. 14 in the National Health Statistics Reports, a publication from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kimberly Daniels, Ph.D., and Joyce C. Abma, Ph.D., from the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Maryland, describe methods of contraception ever used by U.S. women aged 15 to 49 years who had ever had sexual intercourse with a male partner, focusing on data collected from 11,695 women interviewed in the 2015 to 2019 National Survey of Family Growth.

The researchers found that almost all 10,122 women of reproductive age who had ever had sexual intercourse with a male partner used at least one contraceptive method at some time in their life (99.2 percent), including 87.8 percent who had ever used a “most or moderately effective reversible method,” including the pill; an injectable; a contraceptive patch, ring, or implant; or intrauterine device.

Of the women, most had used the male condom with a partner, the pill, or withdrawal (94.5, 79.8, and 65.7 percent, respectively). Long-acting reversible contraception (intrauterine device or contraceptive implant) was used by about one in four women (24.9 percent), as was emergency contraception (23.5 percent).

There was variation seen in the methods used by Hispanic origin and race, nativity among Hispanic women, education, religious affiliation and importance, and urban-rural residence.

“Among the 52.6 million women who had ever used the pill, 34.1 percent (or 17.9 million) discontinued use because of dissatisfaction with the method, most often because of side effects (64.1 percent of the women who stopped using it),” the authors write.

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