The Federal Centre for Health Education’s (BZgA) representative study Youth Sexuality 9th Iteration is a representative repeat survey. A large-scale survey of young people, their parents and young adults was launched for the ninth time in the summer of 2019. It follows on from predecessor studies conducted between 1980 and 2014. The goal of the study is to acquire reliable data about the attitudes and behaviours of young people in the Federal Republic of Germany with regards to sexuality and contraception.
Currently, 28 percent of the adolescents between the ages of 14 and 17 and 82 percent of the young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 say they have had sexual intercourse at least once. For the vast majority of the sexually active young people it is happily the case that using contraception is a self-evident choice from the very first time.
The contraceptive pill plays a central role in preventing pregnancy, especially with increasing sexual experience and in steady relationships. However, when looking at the trend, there is a fall in the use of the contraceptive pill that is correlated with a loss of trust in how well the pill is tolerated by the body.
This fact sheet presents the core results regarding the contraceptive behaviour around the pill for the group of sexually active adolescents and young adults between the ages of 14 and 25.
Results: An Overview
- As sexual experience increases, more young people are switching from condoms to the pill.
- In relationships the contraceptive pill is the birth control method of choice.
- The use of the contraceptive pill has fallen markedly in recent years.
- The assessment of the contraceptive pill: it is safe, easily available and easy to use.
- Young women are more critical about the pill’s tolerability than they were a few years ago.
- Forgetting to take the contraceptive pill remains the most common usage problem with the pill.