Prevention with pill and condom preferred

Contraception with pill and condom preferred in Germany

01/04/2011

When it comes to contraception, most Germans play it safe. About 53 percent of sexually active adults use the contraceptive pill, about 37 percent condoms, said the director of the Federal Center for Health Education, Elisabeth Pott, at the launch of the first German contraceptive congress in Wiesbaden.

Overall, 76 percent of Germans between the ages of 18 and 49 prevent sexual intercourse, the director of the BZgA reported referring to the results of a recent study. Only 16 percent of those surveyed said they did not take any preventive measures. The contraceptive pills and condoms are still the most popular contraceptive, being „the frequent double use of the two contraceptive methods“ is striking, emphasized Elisabeth Pott.

Contraceptive pill and condom preferred contraceptive
In a representative study on the use of contraceptives, the BZgA interviewed 997 men and women between the ages of 18 and 49 in January this year. The results were presented by the director of the BZgA on Saturday at the first German contraceptive congress. According to the survey, 53 percent of respondents said they prefer birth control pills as a contraceptive, with 37 percent using only the pill and 15 percent using condoms. According to the BZgA survey, the Germans most frequently use the condom for contraception. For example, 20 percent of respondents use only condoms and 17 percent use them in conjunction with other contraceptives. Ten percent of the study participants stated that they use the spiral for contraception. A further ten percent of respondents have been sterilized according to the information provided by the BZgA, according to Elisabeth Pott „usually then (the case is), if there is no further wish for a child“. Other contraceptive methods such as the hormonal rod, the vaginal ring or the three-month syringe were preferred by only one to two percent of respondents.

Elderly people can be sterilized more often
According to the BZgA, however, the preferred methods of contraception also vary with the age of the study participants. Thus, with 23 percent, almost a quarter of respondents between the ages of 40 and 49 were sterilized and only 30 percent used the pill or 26 percent condoms. In contrast, 72 percent of the younger study participants aged 18 to 29 years used the pill and 51 percent used condoms. Last year, the Federal Center for Health Education carried out a study of 5,674 adolescents on the prevention behavior of young people and found that around 75 percent of all 14- to 17-year-old girls with and without a migrant background had a condom and more than one at first intercourse Third to use birth control pills. According to the BZgA, three quarters of the interviewees had used a condom during the first sexual intercourse, but the percentage among boys with a migrant background was only 59 per cent, according to the BZgA last year. Unprotected traffic at „first time“ according to the BZgA study, a total of 8 percent of girls (12 percent of girls with a migrant background) and 8 percent of boys (18 percent of boys with a migrant background).

Naturopathic alternative
From a naturopathic point of view, as an alternative to the contraceptives examined by the BZgA the Mexican Wild Yam (in German: „Mexican wild yam“). Their active ingredient played a decisive role in the invention of contraceptive pills and in the medicine of Mexican primitive folk yam root has been used for generations to prevent but also to treat other diseases. In contrast to the synthetic birth control pills, Mexican Wild Yam does not cause any known side effects and also helps to lower the dosage of health problems such as spasms, inflammation and rheumatic pains. When used as a contraceptive in natural medicine, the consumption of about 3,000 milligrams of powdered yam root daily recommended to build up effective contraception. To protect against infectious diseases, the condom is still the best alternative. (Fp)

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