Rising risk: Teenagers neglecting contraception at alarming rates
7:52 AM EDT, August 28, 2024
The World Health Organization published a report on the sexual lives of teenagers. The analysis showed that young people are increasingly having unprotected intercourse. Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, warns that we are already reaping the bitter fruits of neglecting sexual education.
Teenage intimate relations no longer surprise anyone. According to European statistics, the majority of 17-year-old males and 19-year-old females have already had their first sexual experience. It is a completely normal need that occurs in every adult or maturing person.
The World Health Organization draws attention to a worrying trend that could impact the lives of young people. Increasingly, teenagers are having intercourse without any protection. This raises the risk of unwanted pregnancies and many sexually transmitted diseases.
Teenagers are not using contraception
The European Office of the World Health Organization published a report on the sexual lives of teenagers. The study involved 242,000 15-year-olds in 42 different countries and regions. It was conducted from 2014 to 2022.
The analysis showed that increasingly, more young people are going at it without protection. One-third of respondents reported that during their last intercourse, they did not use a condom or other contraceptive methods. As many as 33% of them came from low social status families.
Although the report results are disheartening, they are not surprising
The previous report was published in 2014. Compared to the latest research, the percentage of young men using protection dropped from 70% to 61%, and for girls from 63% to 57%.
Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, assessed that although the report results are disheartening, they are unsurprising. According to the specialist, the lack of protection while being intimate results from insufficient sexual education.
He explains that age-appropriate, comprehensive sexual education remains neglected in many countries, and where it is available, it is increasingly under attack based on the erroneous assumption that it encourages sexual behavior. He also appealed to the authorities to pay more attention to this part of teenagers' education.
He adds that society is already reaping the bitter fruits of neglecting sexual education, and the worst is yet to come if governments, health authorities, and the education sector do not recognize the true causes of the current situation and take steps to fix it.
