Teen Sex: Rhythm method of birth control popular but not effective

RHYTHM METHOD for birth control is getting popular in recent times. Growing number of teen says they use rhythm method for birth control. About 17 percent of sexually experienced teen girls say they had used the rhythm method — timing their sex to avoid fertile days to prevent getting pregnant. That's up from 11 percent in 2002.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released on Wednesday says overall, teenage use of birth control and teen attitudes toward pregnancy have remained about the same since 2002. Most importantly survey reveals more teens think it is OK for an unmarried female to have a baby.

The survey was conducted at a time of some highly publicized pregnancies of unmarried teens, including Bristol Palin, the daughter of former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney's kid sister.
According to experts, this increase is worrisome because the rhythm method does not work about 25 percent of the time.

The CDC survey, based on face-to face interview with nearly 2,800 teens ages girls, found that about 42 percent of never married teens had had sex at least once in their life.

The survey results were based on face-to-face interviews with nearly 2,800 teens ages 15 through 19 at their homes in the years 2006 through 2008. Trained female interviewers asked the questions. Of those teens, 98 percent said they'd used birth control at least once, with condoms being the most common choice.

Recent trends of increase in teen birth rate somehow correlate with increased use of rhythm method. The teen birth rate declined steadily from 1991 through 2005, but rose in 2005 -2007. It dropped again in 2008, by 2 percent, to about 10 percent of all births.

Teen attitudes may be big part of it. Nearly 64 percent of teen boys said it's OK for an unmarried female to have a child, up from 50 percent in 2002. More than 70 percent of teen girls agreed, up from 65 percent, though the female increase was not statistically significant.

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