Clueless or Clued Up: Your Right to be Informed about Contraception

This media report from the International Planned Parenthood Foundation (IPPF) and Bayer Pharmaceuticals explores young people's attitudes about sex and contraception and whether they are able to access accurate and unbiased information to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health. Published for World Contraception Day (which takes place on September 26th every year) 2011, the report includes perspectives of more than 5,000 young people across 26 countries in Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Also, six hundred young people were surveyed in Egypt, Kenya, and Uganda.

The "Contraception: Whose responsibility is it anyway?" survey was carried out April and May 2010. The "Talking Sex and Contraception Survey" was carried out in two parts in 2009. The first part was commissioned by Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals and involved 15 countries and 3,230 young people. The second part was commissioned through MTV and involved 2,144 young people across six countries in Latin America. The aim of the "Clueless or Clued" report is to provide an international picture of the survey respondents' sexual behaviour, how much they currently understand about the contraceptive options available to them and their partner, and where they obtain information on contraceptive options and preventing pregnancy.

From the Executive Summary: "In terms of information access, young people appear to be gathering insights about sex and contraception from a wide variety of sources including magazines, the internet, friends and family as well as from healthcare professionals and school. With the internet being the overall preferred source of information about sex and contraception, it is also cited as the second most common source of inaccurate information and clearly much of what young people read in social media sites or forums could well be myth or misconception. This is highlighted by the large numbers of young people who believe that ineffective methods of contraception, such as the withdrawal method or having sex during menstruation, will protect them from an unplanned pregnancy.

A considerable number of young people said they have received information on contraception that they have since realized was inaccurate or untrue in most cases the information was obtained from friends or the internet but in some cases it was provided by partners or even teachers.

The fact that school does not provide a comfortable environment for questions about sexuality and intimacy was raised as a common barrier preventing young people from being able to obtain accurate and unbiased information on contraception. In addition to this, the survey results appear to suggest that in some countries there may be a link between poor provision of sex education at school and numbers of unplanned pregnancies, for example in Brazil and Indonesia where there is limited sex education, as many as 67% and 48% of young people have a close friend of family member who has had an unplanned pregnancy. Furthermore, in France and Norway, where 85% and 84% of young people receive sex education, only 25% and 24%, know a close friend or family member who has had an unplanned pregnancy. There is also some correlation between poor provision of sex education and prevalence of misconceptions about effective contraceptive methods in Turkey and Russia where education provision is low, a large number of young people believe that unreliable methods such as withdrawal or bathing / showering after sex are effective at preventing an unplanned pregnancy.

However, there are exceptions to this, such as in Poland, where 69% of teenagers receive sex education but as many as 56% know someone who has had an unplanned pregnancy. This could suggest that in some countries where there is widespread provision of sex education, the quality of it, in terms of how young people are taught and the topics covered, may vary from school to school and from region to region. Poor services and supplies are also likely to be a factor in the levels of unplanned pregnancies and poor contraception knowledge in some countries, although the survey does not investigate these issues extensively. No matter where they live, respondents told us that they are too embarrassed to ask for information and that they were unable to access contraception when they needed it because they were too embarrassed to ask a healthcare professional - the very person charged with supplying them with accurate and unbiased information and family planning supplies.

All young people have the right to learn about their sexual and reproductive health and about the importance of asserting one's sexual health rights so they are able to make empowered and informed choices. World Contraception Day 2011, under the theme of ëLive Your Life, Know your rights, Learn about contraception focuses on the right of young people to access accurate and unbiased information about contraception in order to prevent an unplanned pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection (STI)...."