Abstract

PIP: The Young Adult Reproductive Health Survey examined adolescent sexual behavior and contraceptive use among 3000 males and females 15-24 years of age in 2 districts in Mexico City. It was the first Latin American survey targeted at adolescents in middle and lower socioeconomic communities. The mean age at first intercourse was 15.7 years for males and 17.0 for females. Only 28% of the sexually active unmarried males and 31% of sexually active unmarried females reported intercourse in the 30 days preceding the survey, indicating that sexual activity among adolescents in Latin America may be less frequent than is believed. 12% of female respondents had been pregnant before the age of 20 years; half of the pregnancies to unmarried women were unintended. 1/5 of males and 1/3 of females reported using contraception at first intercourse; use rates were significantly higher among those who had received sex education in school. Knowledge of modern methods of contraception was high: 90% among males and 89% among females. Men indicated the most appropriate contraceptive methods were condoms (31%) and oral contraceptives (21%); women considered the pill (34%), injectables (17%), and the IUD (16%) as most appropriate. In terms of actual use, rhythm was the most commonly reported contraceptive method among sexually active unmarried females (42%) and males (29%). Despite the high prevalence of periodic abstinence in this sample, fewer than half of the sexually active unmarried females and 1/3 of the males could correctly identify the fertile period of the menstrual cycle. These findings suggest that special programs are needed to encourage adolescents to use effective methods of contraception.