The pediatrician and the sexually active adolescent. Sexual activity and contraception.

ABSTRACT

Sexuality and its resultant consequences continue to be major issues for adolescents and for those who provide their health care. This article discusses current sexual behavior in adolescents and describes the various forms of hormonal contraception that sexually active adolescents should use.

ABSTRACT

PIP Adolescence, especially early adolescence, is a period of development during which individuals are more physically mature than they are cognitively mature. That is, while the average girl becomes capable of conceiving a child as early as age 10 or 12 years, she is still cognitively a child who is incapable of perceiving the future consequences of current behavior and who is not capable of being an effective parent. Available data indicate that more US adolescents are sexually active than ever before. While surveys suggest that more than half of high school-aged teens have ever had sexual intercourse, adolescent sexual activity tends to be sporadic, with adolescents typically experiencing prolonged periods of abstinence between episodes of sexual intercourse. Naturally predisposed to take risks and experiment with sex, teenagers engage in serial monogamy, moving into and out of a series of monogamous sexual relationships early in life. One study found that high school-aged boys had had an average of 5 sex partners. Studies also indicate that teens who plan to go to college more effectively delay their first sexual intercourse than do teens who do not plan to pursue higher education. While abstinence from risky sexual behaviors is the best way to avoid any adverse consequences from such behavior, many adolescents nonetheless have sexual relations. Physicians who treat adolescents must therefore be prepared to accommodate the reproductive health needs of sexually active teens. Providing contraception when needed is one way in which clinicians can help. Injectable contraception, contraceptive implants, the new oral contraceptives, emergency contraception, and beginning hormonal contraception are discussed.