Hormonal Contraception Use and Sexual Frequency across Young Women’s Intimate Relationships

ABSTRACT

We examined whether hormonal contraception (HC) use predicts sexual frequency throughout and across young women’s intimate relationships. From 2008–2012, the Relationships Dynamics and Social Life Study collected weekly surveys over 2.5 years, and included 893 women (aged 18–19 at baseline) who reported 2,547 intimate relationships across 32,736 weeks. Three-level logistic multilevel models assessed the weekly probability of sexual intercourse based on 1) weekly HC use (vs. nonuse) and 2) duration of HC use, both accounting for several relational and individual characteristics, including relationship duration. Women had more frequent sexual intercourse when they were using HC than when they were not (predicted probabilities .65 vs .41). The weekly probability of sexual intercourse increased sharply within the first month of HC initiation (by about 27 percentage points), remained high for several months, then began to slowly decline (yet remained above that of nonuse). When separated by method type, similar trajectories were found for the pill, ring, and IUD/implant; following the initial increase, steeper declines in intercourse frequency were found for the contraceptive injectable, eventually dropping below pre-initiation levels. Findings signify the immediate influence of reduced pregnancy fears in facilitating sexual intercourse among young women, which may decline as HC use continues long-term.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/DSDR/studies/34626.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website

Notes

¹ Without a term that fully and accurately encompasses all pregnancies that are not deliberately planned, intended, pursued, and wanted, we follow the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and hereafter use the term “unintended” to refer to all pregnancies that are either unplanned, unintended, undesired, and/or unwanted. We acknowledge the subtle differences inherent in each term and what they may implicitly convey about those involved. For discussions on the topic, see Santelli et al. (2003) and Kost and Zolna (2019).

² The hormonal contraceptive methods included in this investigation were oral contraceptives and the contraceptive patch, ring, implant, injectable (or “shot”), and intrauterine devices (IUDs).

³ Although exact efficacy rates depend on the method, all hormonal methods reviewed by Trussell (2011) indicated far superior efficacy rates compared to condoms with both typical use (18% pregnancy rate with condom vs. 0.05–9.0% with hormonal methods) and perfect use (2% pregnancy rate with condom vs. 0.05–0.3% with hormonal methods). Methods included the contraceptive pill, patch, ring, injectable, IUD, and transdermal implant.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [U54-HD093540].