Girls gone wild say � I'm not EC

Better access to emergency contraception doesn't equal more unprotected sex for teen girls

By Charles Rowe

The word "teens" conjures up images of gangly adolescents who act before they think. Once puberty hits all hope of controlling these hormone-diven rebels is lost. Even physicians harbour this prejudice, according to Dr Melanie Gold from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Her study published in the April issue of Journal of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology challenges this societal bias, suggesting that we should give the rowdy bunch more credit.

The study questioned whether sexually active teenage girls would have more sex if given a stock of emergency contraception (EC) 'morning after' pills to take home. Sounds like a trick question? It's not � the results disprove the preconception that they would throw caution to the wind when given a 'safety net.'

Three hundred and one women aged 15 to 20 who visited an urban Pittsburgh adolescent health clinic between June 1997 and 2002 were randomly divided into two groups. The first "advance EC" group received the pills up front. The second control group received the pills only on an as needed basis.

Telephone interviews after four weeks and six months didn't reveal any differences between the two groups when it came to the amount of unprotected sex during the month previous or most recent encounter. At the six-month followup, 77% of the advance EC women reported condom use during sex in the previous month � significantly more than the controls (62%).

In their most recent sexual encounter, a high percentage of the advance EC group (83%) and controls (78%) reported condom use. The frequency of use of standard birth control pills was similar in both groups for the previous month (44% for advance EC and 53% for controls) and for the most recent intercourse as well (48% vs 58%). Although at one month almost twice as many women in the advance group used the emergency pills as in the control group (15% vs 8%), by the end of the study period the rate of use was essentially the same (8% vs 6%).

Those in the advance group used the emergency option significantly sooner following sex than did those in the control group (11.4 hours vs 21.8 hours).