September 21, 2012
What Young Adults Know-and Don't Know-About Women's Fertility Patterns: Implications for Reducing Unintended Pregnancies
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Young adults have surprisingly low levels of "fertility awareness knowledge" (defined as accurate knowledge about the time
during a woman's menstrual cycle at which she is able to become
pregnant), according to new analyses by Child Trends, based on recent
national survey data. What Young Adults Know and Don't Know About Women's Fertility Patterns notes that only one-third
of unmarried young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 know that there
is a certain time in a woman's menstrual cycle when she is most likely
to become pregnant and can identify that time as being roughly halfway
between her two periods.
Key findings include:
Fertility
awareness knowledge also appears to be higher among young adults who
have used more traditional methods to avoid pregnancy (that is, methods
such as withdrawal or natural family planning, which rely on the ability
to track a woman's fertile period and abstain from sex or use more
effective methods during that time). However, significant gaps in knowledge remain among these method users, In-depth
interviews with more than 50 young, urban, minority women who have used
natural family planning (NFP) suggest that some NFP users are motivated
to use the methods to prevent pregnancy, but lack the knowledge to
implement these methods effectively.
Being
able to accurately identify when women are most fertile may help young
adults make more informed decisions about sex and contraceptive use,
thus reducing the high number of unintended pregnancies among this
group.
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