Levin, Amanda: Teens and Contraception

            In the article “IUDs, Implants Best Teen Birth Control, ACOG Says” Charles Bankhead argues that contraceptive implants and intrauterine devices are the safest and most protective birth control option out there for teenagers. But, teenagers and their parents greatly favor oral contraceptives and condoms, as suggested in the article “Parents Prefer Some, Often Less-Effective, Birth Control Methods for Teens” by Milly Dawson. After a phone study, it was decided that parents are more accepting of different kinds of contraceptives if they acknowledge their daughter’s independence, but mostly name birth control pills as their top choice (Dawson). But, other studies show that short-acting contraceptive methods have higher failure rates compared to long-acting contraceptives, such as IUDs (Bankhead). Long-acting reversible options are only used by less than 5% of teenagers who use contraception (Bankhead). Studies have shown that 86% of women continue to use long-acting methods of contraception, while only 55% continue their short-acting methods (Bankhead). In another study, parents with a daughter ages 12 to 17 were asked about their attitudes toward different contraceptive methods. Their acceptance rate of each method were in this order: birth control (59%), condoms (51%), injectable contraceptives (46%), emergency contraceptive (45%), birth control patches (42%), implants (32%), and intrauterine devices (18%) (Dawson). Cori Baill, M.D., believes that IUD’s are not acceptable to parents because of safety problems, and the events having to do with the Dalkon shield (Dawson). But, parents need to know that unplanned pregnancies were 22 times more likely with women using short-term forms of contraception, and teenagers were twice as likely to have unwanted pregnancies than older women when using short-term contraception (Bankhead). In sum, these two articles are both discussing different types of contraception, how protective they are, and how parents feel about them. The article, “IUDs, Implants Best Teen Birth Control, ACOG Says,” mostly talks about how IUD’s are the most effective contraception method compared to short-term contraceptives. The article, “Parents Prefer Some, Often Less-Effective, Birth Control Methods for Teens,” says that parents are more willing for their daughter to use birth control rather than IUD’s and implants even though their daughter is more likely to get pregnant while using short-term contraceptives. All in all, these two articles clearly state that IUDs are the way to go if you want to choose a lasting, effective, and safe contraceptive method.