Does access to condoms prevent teenage pregnancy

• PMID: 8803728

Condom availability for adolescents

No authors listed. J Adolesc Health. 1996 Jun.

Abstract

Although abstinence should be stressed as the certain way to prevent STDs and pregnancy, sexually active teens, male and female, must nonetheless be taught to use condoms properly, effectively, and consistently. The latex condom should be made widely available to young people. Ideally, young persons should have access to education and counseling when contraception is dispensed. However, condoms should be made easily available without any requirement for education. Condoms should be available not only through families, medical facilities, and commercial channels, but also through other appropriate and informed persons, without cost if possible, at sites where adolescents congregate. These sites may include schools, clubs, and other youth-serving agencies. A clear message from the medical community supporting condom use will enhance compliance.

PIP: In the US, the high percentage of adolescents who engage in sexual activity is evident from the information they give researchers and from the number of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and unplanned pregnancies they experience each year. While abstinence is the best way to avoid these outcomes, use of the latex condom should be promoted among adolescents as an effective agent in preventing the transmission of STDs and as an effective means of preventing pregnancy. Condom contraceptive failure rates respond to user characteristics which, in turn, influence whether condoms are used properly. Manufacturing standards have been devised to reduce the risk of marketing defective condoms. Although condom use among teenagers is increasing, it is not consistent and could be improved if the adolescents were taught how to use a condom successfully and how to negotiate for its use. There are many barriers which an adolescent must overcome in order to obtain and use a condom. These barriers include not being able to locate the condoms on a shelf without having to seek assistance. A barrier to school-based education is the mistaken perception that educating young people about contraception will make them become more sexually active. In fact, there are indications that the reverse may be true. Latex condoms should be widely available to young people without any prerequisite education although an ideal scenario would include the provision of information and counseling for young people.

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MeSH terms

Many people tend to believe that teenagers are going to have sex anyway, that’s why it’s better to provide an easier access to condoms. In some European countries condoms are even handed out at schools for free. However, is this measure really helpful in achieving the main purpose of the campaign– to decrease the rates of teen pregnancy and venereal diseases?

Statistics show that distribution of condoms turns out to be not really helpful. The rates are still growing and there are some truly gruesome cases, when teens of 13 or 14 get pregnant. And the reason, in my opinion, is that easy access to condoms does not cultivate safe sex; it cultivates irresponsibility among people. In the times when contraceptives were either ineffective or extremely hard to get, the moral level of society protected teenagers from getting pregnant – there was an understanding that the consequences of having a good time may be very, very unpleasant. Free sexual relations were shunned by society.

Modern teenagers that are taught from the very childhood that sex is completely alright, no matter in what age, with whom or in what circumstances you have it, that you can buy condoms anytime and anywhere, and you shouldn’t have such preconceptions. They know that all the negative consequences may be easily averted if sex is safe – but it only breeds overall contempt for the above-mentioned outdated preconceptions and the precautionary measures as well.

Easy access to condoms doesn’t and cannot prevent teen pregnancy, for it doesn’t make an influence on the source of the problem; in fact, it only makes it worse. If teenagers don’t understand the seriousness of consequences, social problem will never be resolved.