Babies Worldwide

Women prefer to use the pill ahead of other forms of contraceptive according to a new survey by the Office for National Statistics. In 2007/08, three-quarters of women in the 16-49 age group reported using some form of contraception, with 28 per cent of women using the pill, compared with 24 per cent who relied on the male condom.

One quarter of women said they did not use any form of contraception in 2007/08, with the most common reason being that they were not in a heterosexual relationship (14 per cent). Three per cent said they were not using contraceptives because they wanted to become pregnant.

The annual survey is carried out on behalf of the NHS Information Centre for health and social care. Questions were addressed to women aged 16-49 and men aged 16-69, and most respondents used a self-completion format.

Other key findings for 2007/08 include:

Emergency contraception

Almost all women (91 per cent) questioned in the survey had heard of hormonal emergency contraception – the ‘morning after pill’ – but fewer (37 per cent) were aware of the emergency intrauterine device.

Fewer than half of women were correctly aware that the morning after pill remains effective up to 72 hours after intercourse. Eight per cent knew correctly that the emergency IUD was effective up to five days after intercourse.

Six per cent of women believed, incorrectly, that the morning after pill protected them against pregnancy until the next period.

Tags: birth control, Pregnancy & Pre-Birth

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 8:00 am and is filed under Pregnancy & Pre-Birth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.