A new research shows that the use of long-term contraceptive methods has increased among teenagers in the last 10 years.
According to researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Population Affairs, although the use of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) has been relatively low nationwide, efforts by the program Title X, has increased its use by teenagers.
NPR News reports that the American Academy of Pediatricians and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have long been recommending the use of LARC among teenagers due to its efficacy and safety.
The predicament encountered with the non-usage of these methods is that most teens are not aware of these contraceptive options. According to a study by Secura and her co-researchers published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2014, when health care practitioners informed teens about all their options in terms of contraception, 72% chose LARC.
Meanwhile, to land to their findings, CDC and U.S. Department of Health analyzed the dates from 2005 to 2013 among eight million teen women ages 15 to 19 who are enrolled at birth control clinics and under the program Title X. At the start of the study, there were only 0.4% or 4,000 teens who were using LARC methods but in 2013, the rate has risen to 7.1% or about 40,000 teenagers, reported the New York Times.
"We encourage teens who aren't sexually active to continue to wait, but for teens who are choosing to have sex, we want them to make an informed choice," Ileana Arias, the CDC's principal deputy director, said during a media briefing as reported by WebMD.
She added, "We want them to think about the most effective types of birth control, and ask their doctor or family planning counselor about long-acting reversible contraception as well as about other options."
In 2012, a total of 305,388 babies were born to women aged 15-19 years, for a live birth rate of 29.4 per 1,000 women in this age group, CDC reports.
Furthermore, teen pregnancy rates decreased dramatically in the country during the past two decades, from 61.8 births per 1,000 teens aged 15-19 years in 1991 to an all-time low of 26.5 births per 1,000 teens in 2013.