Contraception for Adolescents

Opinion statement Teenage pregnancy rates in the USA have declined for over 20 years, primarily due to increased access to highly effective contraceptive methods. Despite these encouraging trends, US teen pregnancy rates still remain higher than most other developed nations. There are significant me...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current treatment options in pediatrics 2016-09, Vol.2 (3), p.171-183
Main Authors: Mermelstein, Sarah, Plax, Katie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Birth control
Birth rate
Confidentiality
Consent
Contraindications
Counseling
Critical Care Medicine
Families & family life
Family Medicine
Family planning
Females
Fertility
General Practice
Health care
Intensive
Males
Maternal and Child Health
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Methods
Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act 2010-US
Pediatric Gynecology (L Breech and K Stambough
Pediatrics
Secondary school students
Secondary schools
Section Editors
Teenage pregnancy
Topical Collection on Pediatric Gynecology
Trends
Womens health
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Summary:Opinion statement Teenage pregnancy rates in the USA have declined for over 20 years, primarily due to increased access to highly effective contraceptive methods. Despite these encouraging trends, US teen pregnancy rates still remain higher than most other developed nations. There are significant medical, psychological, and financial implications and morbidities associated with unintended teen pregnancy and thus primary prevention strategies to decrease rates of teen pregnancy should be a focus for clinicians. New data shows significant benefit of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC)—intrauterine devices or subdermal implants—over shorter acting methods such as the birth control pill. Despite these data, along with policies from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics supporting provision of LARC to adolescents, there is a lag among clinicians to communicate this information to their adolescent patients as standard of care. Many providers continue to utilize only short-acting methods such as the pill. Until clinicians more comprehensively adopt use of LARC methods as first-line agents for teenagers, rates of unintended pregnancy within this age group will likely remain high. Working to recognize and decrease barriers to contraceptive access should be a public health priority.
ISSN:2198-6088
2198-6088
DOI:10.1007/s40746-016-0053-9