UK: New contraceptive statistics released

The condom has now caught up with the pill as women’s usual method of contraception, according to figures issued by the Office for National Statistics.

Condoms are used by 25 per cent of women under 50, and an equal percentage use the pill as a birth-control method, according to Opinions Survey Report No. 41 Contraception and Sexual Health, 2008/09. This is based on information provided by 2,557 respondents (1,464 men and 1,093 women). The findings were released on on 20 October 2009.

Other findings included:

• The majority of women under 50 (75 per cent) were using contraception

• Younger women preferred to use the pill or male condom, and

• Older women were more likely than younger women to rely on sterilisation or their partner’s vasectomy.

Excluding women who had been sterilised at least two years ago, in 2008/09 almost all women (91 per cent) said they had heard of the emergency contraception pill, or ‘morning after pill’. However, awareness of the emergency intrauterine device (IUD), which can be inserted up to five days after intercourse, had fallen from 49 per cent in 2000/01 to 40 per cent in 2008/09.

In 2008/09, TV programmes and adverts were acknowledged as the main source of information about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) by 55 per cent of those surveyed. Newspapers, magazines and books were mentioned as the main source by 16 per cent and government information leaflets by three per cent. Sex information in schools or colleges accounted for 11 per cent.

Over half the men interviewed (59 per cent) who said they were not in a long-term exclusive relationship, but had had a sexual relationship in the last year, admitted that information on HIV and other sexually transmitted infections had no effect on their behaviour. However:

• 34 per cent said they had increased their use of condoms

• Six per cent said they had fewer one-night stands, and

• Six per cent took a test for sexually-transmitted infections when they changed partners.

Around 90 per cent of both men and women who used condoms cited prevention of pregnancy as one of their reasons for using them, and almost half (45 per cent) cited prevention of infection.

Opinions Survey Report No. 41 Contraception and Sexual Health, 2008/09 and further information on Contraception and Sexual Health is available here.