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Loading...Rhythm Method Popular Among Sexually Active Teens
Forty-two percent of teenagers say they have engaged in sexual intercourse — and a lot of them say they are using the rhythm method of birth control.
A survey released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and prevention says that a growing number of teenagers are using the rhythm method of birth control — that is avoiding sexual intercourse during fertile days.
Also known as the “calendar method,” the rhythm method is a precarious exercise that relies on careful tracking of the cycle in order to determine the “high risk” days around ovulation, and abstaining from intercourse during those days. It is effective only about 75 percent of the time.
Pregnancy rate among teens saw a steady drop from 1991 through 2005, rose again from 2005 to 2007, and then dropped by two percent in 2008.
Approximately 17 percent of sexually active teenage girls report they have used the rhythm method as a means of prevention pregnancy. That’s 11 percent higher than in 2002.
Ninety-five percent of teens say they’ve used a condom, 58 percent used withdrawal, and 55 percent used the pill.
Fifty-eight percent of females and 47 percent of male teens said they would be very upset if they got pregnant (or got a partner pregnant). Interestingly, 14 percent of females and 18 percent of males would be pleased at a pregnancy.
Attitude measures show that 70 percent of females and more than 50 percent of male teens are accepting of childbearing outside of marriage.
The percentage of teens who have had sex has remained relatively unchanged from 2002 to 2008.
When it comes to keeping teen pregnancy rates down, progress appears to have stalled.
Related reading on Care2:
- The pill profoundly changed women’s reproductive lives. 50 Years on the Pill: Our Bodies, Our Choices, Our Lives
- It turns out that parents and rules really do matter. How to Control Teen Drinking: Parents Matter
- College students today are less empathetic than college students of the past. Are We Losing Our Empathy?
Get the full CDC Report
Read more: birth control, cdc, health policy, healthcaretmc, rhythm method, sex, teen pregnancy, teens
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Recent Comments from Causes
I DO like Crystal J.s comment... however, watch your young puppies and kittens, etc.
The penguin had a taste of the real life and will try to escape again when the opportunity is there.
Wow...I am in the same boat as some of the rest of you who thought this was already illegal! I am shocked…
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+ add your ownI know when I am fertile! LOL Sex has been so glorified and mystifyed and made into such a "forbidden" activity.
I would like to see girls/women not think that having sex when ever makes them better or sexier or anything other than stupid and a girl or woman who has been used by a man. For his pleasure/ego/ whatever.
Do not think I hate men. I do not. I love my men. Both my BF and my ex.
Mother's need to educate their daughters. Personal Responsibility. There are wonderful men out there! Most of them are. Protect yourself against the ones who are not.....
and sadly the women who need to read this won't.....cause they are trapped in the same cycle.
I suspect the teens don't realize how truly risky this method is... plus, using the rhythm method only usually leaves them open to get all sorts of STDs. Protection is not just about pregnacy. It's also about staying healthy.
I co-founded and co-owned the Tallahassee Feminist Women's Health Center in 1974 and so this is an area I am well versed in.
The rhythm method does work very well if a woman knows her body, particularly the changes in her cervix, which she can see using a speculum, flashlight and mirror. She also needs to have the power to say, "No," which women in a society where we are paid a fraction of what men are paid, where battering is still not taken seriously and where people actually believe they have the right to decide what women do with our bodies, clearly do not yet have.
The pill was researched and developed using women of color, particularly Puerto Rican women, who received no informed consent or medical care for the debilitating illnesses they suffered as a result of being experimented upon. (In fact, many of them died.) Telling that that is never brought up in discussions re: "the pill." These many years later it is disheartening to know women who continue to depend upon men and/or multinational corporations (e.g. drug companies) for their reproductive health and lives.
Side note: When a woman stopped taking "the pill," she was no longer considered to be on birth control pills. So when she became pregnant, it was not labelled as a pill failure. However, a woman who had a diaphragm in her drawer was considered to be a diaphragm user whether or not she actually used it. This is just one example of how drug companies managed to convince women to take the pill.
The rhythm method is so unpredictable!
The rhythm method has led to a lot of babies being born. And in teens whose bodies and hormones are fluctuating it is like playing with fire.
A human is considered a minor until age 18 in America. Children should not be having sex. What has happened to morals?
Of course teens are going to have sex. Many don't want the embarrassment of going into a store and buying condoms, so they go without. Unfortunately, they are also putting themselves at high risk for contracting an STD. Since the number of sexually active teens will never see a drastic drop, they need proper education on birth control methods instead of abstinence.
Rhythm Method is only birth control is approved by the Pope!
The technical term for women who rely on the calendar method as their only method of birth control is ... "mothers".
On the other hand, as many couples can attest, the rhythm cycles DO provide a good guide as to when it is most likely that a woman will conceive. Using that method (usually along with basal metabolism or other supplemental indicators) can do wonders to improve a couple's chances of having a baby, over just "shooting at random.
Wow, it's not like you can't easily buy condoms at any drugstore in town.
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