Protect Yourself: When used correctly, condoms are 98 percent effective in preventing pregnancy.We know it’s bad, but my friends and I don’t use condoms during sex," admits seventeen-year-old Ellen,* from New York City. "We’re too... Protect Yourself: When used correctly, condoms are 98 percent effective in preventing pregnancy.
We know it’s bad, but my friends and I don’t use condoms during sex," admits seventeen-year-old Ellen,* from New York City. "We’re too young to get an STD, so unprotected sex is fine." Ellen’s attitude may be cavalier and her habits downright dangerous--but it’s no surprise to health experts. "Some teens aren’t being as conscientious about using condoms and contraception as they have in the recent past," says David Bell, M.D., an adolescent medicine specialist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. In fact, according to a Teen Vogue survey of more than 2,000 teens, a whopping 23 percent of teens reported that they never use protection when having sex.
It’s cause for serious concern. While teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease rates had been declining, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported that the previously improving trends have flattened, and in some cases, may be worsening. Teen birth rates increased in 2006 and 2007 (nearly 450,000 girls between the ages of fifteen and nineteen had babies in 2007). In addition, the CDC reports that an estimated one million adolescents and young adults were reported to have chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis in 2006.