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Contraception (birth control options)

By The Healthy Women Team

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Not many weeks seem to go by without new statistics frightening us all into believing that the UK female population is an abortion-happy, contraception-illiterate group of people, happy to bury our heads in the sand rather than think about how best to prevent unplanned pregnancies.

Indeed, the figures make for quite sobering reading, especially for parents of teenage girls. The UK has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe, and in the developed world we are second only to the United States when it comes to the number of teens getting pregnant.¹

The problem of unplanned pregnancy doesn't stop when you hit 20 though. Almost half of all abortions that take place are carried out on women in their twenties, and there are more abortions carried out on over 35s than there are on under 18s (although these are not necessarily just for unplanned pregnancies.)

Why is contraception such a taboo subject?

It seems that we're happy to have sex, often with someone we hardly know – but although we're quite ready to get naked with them, bringing up the subject of contraception in a new relationship is considered to be embarrassing. A new man may well assume that you're already on the pill (and that you won't insist on a condom, even though you should) and women still feel it's somehow 'tarty' to carry a condom, and leave it up to the man.

Think about it – if you believe it's embarrassing to bring up the subject of condoms when you're about to have sex with a new man, just imagine how much more embarrassed you'll be if you find yourself with a sexually transmitted disease and have to make that phone call...

There's absolutely nothing embarrassing about being responsible.

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