Contraception And Sexual
Behaviour
Pill still tops the bill
Use of contraception in 2002/03: by women aged 16
to 49, Great Britain
In
2002/03, 74 per cent of GB women (aged 16 to 49) used
some form of contraception. The pill continued to
be the most common method of contraception, used by
25 per cent of women, followed by the male condom
(20 per cent).
The
proportion of women who had been sterilised, or who
had a partner who had been sterilised, almost doubled
between 1976 and 1986, although there has been little
change since then. In 2002/03, 11 per cent of women
had been sterilised and 12 per cent had a partner
who had had a vasectomy.
The
type of contraception which women used varied with
their age. Women aged under 30 were more likely to
use the contraceptive pill than older women, while
the likelihood of a women having been sterilised or
having a partner who had had a vasectomy rose with
age.
A
quarter of women (26 per cent) were not using any
method of contraception, and just over half of these
were not currently in a heterosexual relationship.
Five
per cent of women had used the 'morning after pill'
at least once during the year prior to interview.
Women aged under 25 were more likely than those aged
35 and over to have used it.
Sexual
behaviour
Twelve
per cent of men aged 16 to 69 and 7 per cent of women
aged 16 to 49 had had more than one sexual partner
in the year prior to interview. Men and women aged
under 25 were those most likely to have had multiple
sexual partners.
Over
three fifths of men and women said that their behaviour
had not been affected by their knowledge of HIV/AIDS
and other sexually transmitted infections (69 per
cent of men aged 16 to 69 and 64 per cent of women
aged 16 to 49).
