RESULTS: Condoms, used by a large majority of respondents during the first acts of intercourse, were rapidly discontinued in favor of other methods, particular the pill, for continuing relationships. However, one in ten respondents (women and men alike) had unprotected intercourse after condom discontinuation, when condom use was discontinued in the first trimester of their relationship. Abortions were more frequent among respondents who reported they did not use a condom at the start of a relationship or among women who did not switch to another form of contraception after discontinuing condom use.
CONCLUSION: While condoms are widely used during the first acts of intercourse, the rising abortion rates among young people suggests frequent contraceptive failures, which partly result from unprotected intercourse following condom discontinuation. These results question the dichotomy between HIV campaigns based on condom use and campaigns to reduce unintended pregnancies, which promote use of other forms of contraception, such as the pill. To reduce the incidence of unprotected intercourse, it would be important to promote the use of condoms at sexual debut, both as a contraceptive and preventive method against STIs, and provide counseling about all available contraceptive options, including the use of emergency contraception as a backup option in case of errors of use of the condom.
So what's going to happen?
As they switch from their more "reliable" contraception to another form, there will be more "contraceptive failures".
Look: contraception, on a collective scale, is an illusion. It gives you the illusion of making pregnancy impossible, especially to younger people.
The truth is: it's roulette. You use condoms, or the pill, even perfectly, and you can still get pregnant.
This the message they are not getting, and which is not sinking in.
It's just easier to tell kids to put a condom on. Who wants to actually try to prevent sexual activity? Too much effort, and it would make most people look like hypocrites anyway, seeing as they themselves probably engage in sex at a young age, outside of marriage.
Kids need to hear that the safest thing you can do is just not have sex. The relationship you have at age 15 in all likelihood will not last. There's no point in investing yourself in the person you're with, who may end up being a loser by the time he's an adult.
Why don't people tell youth these very obvious things?
Are we afraid to spoil their quests for romance? Are we saying to ourselves "I was young once"?
And there will always be more risk compensation behaviour. Always. It's human nature.
I just think that people don't apply these principles because then they'd have to apply it to themselves, as adults. That's the bottom line.
