October 13, 2014 – Contraceptive Choice

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Anchor lead: What birth control methods are most popular for teenagers? Elizabeth Tracey reports

The Contraceptive Choice project, part of which was reported on recently in the New England Journal of Medicine, educated adolescent women about birth control, then provided their method of choice free of charge.  Most young women chose IUDs or implants.  Maria Trent, an adolescent sexuality expert at Johns Hopkins, interprets the findings.

Trent:  I think that that’s why they called it the contraceptive choice project.  Every young woman has to make personal choices about what contraceptive method is best for them.  I think many adolescents struggle with the daily, weekly, monthly self-management of contraception.  We have some of the highest teen pregnancy rates of any industrialized country in the world. So if there are strategies that we can use to help young women who are having sexual intercourse, who don’t want to have a pregnancy I think that this work is important.   :32

Trent says removing financial barriers is also critical.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.