Teens And Rhythm Method: Form Of Birth Control On The Rise

ATLANTA — A growing number of teen girls say they use the rhythm method for birth control, and more teens also think it's OK for an unmarried female to have a baby, according to a government survey released Wednesday.

The report may help explain why the teen pregnancy rate is no longer dropping like it was.

Overall, teenage use of birth control and teen attitudes toward pregnancy have remained about the same since a similar survey was done in 2002.

But there were some notable exceptions in the new survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 17 percent of sexually experienced teen girls say they had used the rhythm method – timing their sex to avoid fertile days to prevent getting pregnant. That's up from 11 percent in 2002.

They may have been using another form of birth control at the same time. But the increase is considered worrisome because the rhythm method doesn't work about 25 percent of the time, said Joyce Abma, the report's lead author. She's a social scientist at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

The survey results were based on face-to-face interviews with nearly 2,800 teens ages 15 through 19 at their homes in the years 2006 through 2008. Trained female interviewers asked the questions.

It found that about 42 percent of never-married teens had had sex at least once in their life. Of those teens, 98 percent said they'd used birth control at least once, with condoms being the most common choice. Those findings were about the same as in the 2002 survey.

The increase in the rhythm method may be part of the explanation for recent trends in the teen birth rate. The teen birth rate declined steadily from 1991 through 2005, but rose from 2005 to 2007. It dropped again in 2008, by 2 percent, to about 10 percent of all births.

"We've known the decline in childbearing stalled out. This report kind of fills in the why," said Bill Albert, a spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

Teen attitudes may be big part of it. Nearly 64 percent of teen boys said it's OK for an unmarried female to have a child, up from 50 percent in 2002. More than 70 percent of teen girls agreed, up from 65 percent, though the female increase was not statistically significant.

The survey was conducted at a time of some highly publicized pregnancies of unmarried teens, including Bristol Palin, the daughter of former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney's kid sister. The 2007 movie "Juno," a happy-ending tale of a teen girl's accidental pregnancy, was popular at the time.

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Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs

Comments

[been2there]

05:28 PM on 06/07/2010

My son and his girlfriend tried that--and now they call me "Grandma!" Rhythm is iffy at best and should not be considered birth control.

[LiveWell72]

10:12 AM on 06/11/2010

Natural methods these days ARE birth control, and most are NOT the old-fashioned "rhythm" method. In fact, this article does not state exactly which "rhythm" methods they are referring to.
But that said, I have counseled teens and do not recommend natural methods for two main reasons:
1) teen girls often have irregular menstrual cycles
2) it takes effort on both parties to be most effective and most teens are not in a the type of relationship that can support it.
but also,
3) only condoms can protect against STI's.
However, THEY SHOULD LEARN about ovulation, fertile times, infertile times, etc. It is vital information for all girls and women, and boys and men! We shouldn't be ignorant about basic fertility facts.

[MamaontheGo]

11:25 AM on 06/16/2010

Well said. I wish the article had distinguished between the old-fashioned "rhythm method" and the modern, highly effective Natural Family Planning and Fertility Awareness Methods. I've used FAM for years with my husband for both birth control and planned conception and it works very well when it is followed diligently with the full cooperation of both partners. But as you say, most teens are not in the kind of adult relationship that can really support this, and if their bodies are not fully mature their cycles can be too irregular for FAM to be effective.

Girls and boys both should learn about basic fertility facts as just basic health education. The Catholic Church does a great job of offering classes in effective Natural Family Planning, but they are restricted to engaged and married couples. There is very little good secular education on NFP for teens other than a couple of books, and in my experience it takes several months to really master the method enough to depend on it completely for birth control. Not to mention it does not offer any protection against STDs.