mcgroaryandmalley.com - Teen Sex Facts Update

'Teenagers who have had formal sex education are far more likely to put off having sex, contradicting earlier studies on the effectiveness of such programs...it also increased the likelihood that teen boys would use contraceptives the first time they had sex... Sex education seems to be working.' ~ Trisha Mueller, CDC epidemiologist, J Adol Health.

Latest Facts on American Teens' Sexual & Reproductive Health

(edited from guttmacher.org, August 2011)

Sexual Activity

Most have had sex by age 19. Although only 13% of teens have ever had vaginal sex by age 15, sexual activity is common by the late teen years. By their 19th birthday, seven in 10 teens of both sexes have had intercourse.

Starts around age 17. On average, young people have sex for the first time at about age 17, but they do not marry until their mid-20s. This means that young adults are at increased risk of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) for nearly a decade.

Waiting longer? Teens have been waiting longer to have sex than they did in the recent past. In 2006–2008, some 11% of never-married females aged 15–19 and 14% of never-married males that age had had sex before age 15, compared with 19% and 21%, respectively, in 1995.

Drop in sexual activity from mid-90s is levelling off. However, after substantial declines in the proportion of teens who had ever had sex between 1995 and 2002, the level did not change significantly from 2002 to 2006–2008.

Why do some wait? In 2006–2008, the most common reason that sexually inexperienced teens gave for not having had sex was that it was “against religion or morals” (42% among females and 35% among males). The second and third most common reasons for females were “don’t want to get pregnant” and “haven’t found the right person yet.”

First time is with first love for most. Among sexually experienced teens, 72% of females and 56% of males report that their first sexual experience was with a steady partner, while 14% of females and 25% of males report a first sexual experience with someone whom they had just met or who was just a friend.

First time follows rape for some. Seven percent of young women aged 18–24 who had had sex before age 20 report that their first sexual experience was involuntary. Those whose first partner was three or more years their senior were more likely to report this than were other women in that age-group.

All things being equal, why does the U.S. have such a high pregnancy rate compared to other countries??? Teens in the United States and European teens have similar levels of sexual activity. However, the latter are more likely to use contraceptives and to use effective contraceptive methods; they therefore have substantially lower pregnancy rates.

Homosexual or bisexual a small percentage. Three percent of males and 8% of females aged 18–19 in 2002 reported their sexual orientation as homosexual or bisexual; the proportions reporting same-sex behaviors were similar.

Contraceptive Use

No condoms = 90% pregnant. A sexually active teen who does not use a contraceptive has a 90% chance of becoming pregnant within a year.

Most do use contracept first time. The majority of sexually experienced teens (79% of females and 87% of males) used contraceptives the first time they had sex. Contraceptive use at first premarital sex has been increasing. Fifty-six percent of women whose first premarital sex occurred before 1985 used a method, compared with 76% in 2000–2004 and 84% in 2005–2008.

Condoms are most common. The condom is the most common contraceptive method used at first intercourse; 68% of females and 82% of males use it.

Condom use inconsistent. In 2006–2008, some 95% of sexually experienced female teens had used a condom at least once, 58% had ever used withdrawal and 55% had used the pill. Smaller proportions had used other methods.

Condoms plus hormonal method for some! In the same period, about one in five sexually active female teens (21%) and one-third of sexually active male teens (35%) reported having combined the condom and a hormonal method the last time they had sex. This use of dual methods offers protection against both pregnancy and STIs.

Contraceptive use increased since 1995, but levelling off. In 2006–2008, some 84% of female teens and 93% of male teens reported using contraceptives at last sex. These proportions represent a marked improvement since 1995, when only 71% of female teens and 82% of male teens had reported using a method at last sex. However, the proportions were unchanged between 2002 and 2006–2008.

20% teens use nothing! Nearly one in five female teens at risk of unintended pregnancy (19%) were not using any contraceptive method at last intercourse.

Access to Contraceptive Services

No state explicitly requires parental consent or notification for contraceptive services. However, two states (Texas and Utah) require parental consent for contraceptive services paid for with state funds.

Twenty-one states (including New York) and the District of Columbia explicitly allow minors to access contraceptive services without a parent’s involvement.

Rights to contracept: Another 25 states have affirmed the right to access contraceptive services for certain classes of minors, while four states have no law. However, in the absence of a specific law, courts have determined that minors’ privacy rights include the right to access contraceptive services.

Family planning clinics do comprehensive counseling. In 2002, some 90% of publicly funded family planning clinics counseled clients younger than 18 about abstinence, the importance of communicating with parents about sex or both topics.

Family planning clinics served nearly two million women younger than 20 in 2005; these teens represented one-quarter of the centers’ contraceptive clients.

High schools rarely hand out condoms. In 2006, only 5% of American high schools made condoms available to students.

STIs

HIV: 17% in young people aged 13–24 were among those who received a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS in 2008.

STIs most common in 15–24-year-olds. While they represent only one-quarter of the sexually active population, they account for nearly half (9.1 million) of the 18.9 million new cases of STIs each year.

HPV infections account for about half of STIs diagnosed among 15–24-year-olds each year. HPV is extremely common, often asymptomatic and generally harmless. However, certain types, if left undetected and untreated, can lead to cervical cancer.

Two HPV vaccines are currently available, and both prevent the types of infections most likely to lead to cervical cancer. In June 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine Gardasil as safe and effective for use among girls and women aged 9–26. In October 2009, the agency approved the vaccine for use in boys and men aged 9–26 as well, and approved Cervarix, another vaccine, for use in girls and women aged 10–25.

Vaccinated against HPV: Forty-four percent of females aged 13–19 in 2009 had received one or more doses of the vaccine against HPV; 27% had completed the recommended three doses.

No parental consent for STI services. All 50 states and the District of Columbia explicitly allow minors to consent to STI services without parental involvement, although 11 states require that a minor be of a certain age (generally 12 or 14) to do so. Thirty-one states explicitly include HIV testing and treatment in the package of STI services to which minors may consent.

Pregnancy

Each year, almost 750,000 U.S. women aged 15–19 become pregnant.

Two-thirds of all teen pregnancies occur among 18–19-year-olds.

Overall, 72 pregnancies occurred per 1,000 women aged 15–19 in 2006, a slight increase from the previous year (70 per 1,000). The 2005 rate was a record low and represented a 41% decline from the peak (117 per 1,000), which occurred in 1990.

Why decline in teen pregnancy rate since 1990? The majority of the decline in teen pregnancy rates in the United States (86%) is due to teens’ increasingly consistent contraceptive use; the rest is due to higher proportions of teens choosing to delay sexual activity.

Why is the U.S. still highest in developed nations. Despite the decline, the U.S. teen pregnancy rate continues to be one of the highest in the developed world—more than twice as high as rates in Canada (28 per 1,000 women aged 15–19 in 2006) and Sweden (31 per 1,000).

Recent rise a blip or a concerning trend? For the first time since the early 1990s, the overall U.S. teen pregnancy rate increased in 2006, rising 3%. It is too soon to tell whether this reversal is simply a short-term fluctuation or the beginning of a long-term trend.

States with highest rates: south and southwest. In 2005, New Mexico had the highest teenage pregnancy rate (93 per 1,000); rates in Nevada, Arizona, Texas and Mississippi followed. The lowest rates were in New Hampshire (33), Vermont, Maine, Minnesota and North Dakota.

Majority teen pregnancies are unplanned. Eighty-two percent of teen pregnancies are unplanned; they account for about one-fifth of all unintended pregnancies annually.

Most teens have the baby: Fifty-nine percent of pregnancies among 15–19-year-olds in 2006 ended in birth, and 27% in abortion.

Black and Hispanic women have the highest teen pregnancy rates (126 and 127 per 1,000 women aged 15–19, respectively); non-Hispanic whites have the lowest rate (44 per 1,000).

The pregnancy rate among black teens decreased most: by 45% between 1990 and 2005, more than the overall U.S. teen pregnancy rate declined during the same period (41%).

Girls upset? Most female teens report that they would be very upset (58%) or a little upset (29%) if they got pregnant, while the rest report that they would be a little or very pleased.

Childbearing

Ten percent of all U.S. births are to girls aged 19 or younger.

Most births to teen mothers are first births. Nineteen percent are second or higher order births.

Most teen moms are single mothers.The share of births to teen mothers that are nonmarital rose from 79% in 2000 to 87% in 2008. Yet, over the last several decades, the share of all nonmarital births that are to teenagers has been declining, from 52% in 1975 to 22% in 2008.

Continued decline or blip? In 2008, some 42 births occurred per 1,000 women aged 15–19; this rate marks a 33% decline from the peak rate of 62 reached in 1991. However, after decades of decline, the teen birthrate increased in 2006 and 2007, only to fall again in 2008.

Prental care?Risk of low birthweight babies. Six percent of teen mothers aged 15–19 received late or no prenatal care. Babies born to teens are more likely to be low-birth-weight than are those born to women in their 20s and 30s.

Less education = increased teen pregnancy. Teen childbearing is associated with reduced educational attainment. Teen mothers are substantially less likely than women who delay childbearing to complete high school or obtain a GED by age 22 (66% vs. 94%).

Teen pregnancy = less likely to continue education. Fewer than 2% of teens who have a baby before age 18 attain a college degree by age 30.

Fatherhood

Males upset? Most teen males report that they would be very upset (47%) or a little upset (34%) if they got a female pregnant, while the rest report that they would be pleased or a little pleased.

Teen fatherhood rates vary considerably by race. In 2006, the rate among black males aged 15–19 who became fathers (34 per 1,000) was more than twice that among whites (15 per 1,000).

The rate of teen fatherhood declined 25% between 1990 and 2006, from 24 to 18 per 1,000 males aged 15–19. This decline was far more substantial among blacks than among whites (38% vs. 18%).

Abortion

Women aged 15–19 had 200,420 abortions in 2006.

Why do they abort? The reasons teens most frequently give for having an abortion are concern about how having a baby would change their lives, inability to afford a baby now and feeling insufficiently mature to raise a child.

Parents permission for pregnancy termination? As of June 2010, Laws in 36 states required that a minor seeking an abortion involve her parents in the decision.

Guttmacher Institute, guttmacher.org

"The evidence does not support abstinence-only interventions as the best way to keep young people from unintended pregnancy." ~ Jonathan Klein