Prevention of Teenage Pregnancy
- Comprehensive Sex Education
- Schools and communities should provide accurate and age-appropriate information about reproductive health, contraception, and responsible decision-making.
- Parental Guidance and Support
- Open communication between parents and teens about relationships, sex, and life goals can help reduce teenage pregnancies.
- Access to Contraceptives
- Providing free or affordable birth control options like condoms, birth control pills, and emergency contraception can prevent unplanned pregnancies.
- Empowering Young Girls
- Encouraging girls to focus on education, career goals, and personal development reduces the likelihood of early pregnancy.
- Promoting Abstinence and Safe Relationships
- Teaching the importance of self-respect and healthy relationships can help teens make informed choices.
- Community and Government Support
- Programs that provide counseling, healthcare, and financial assistance can help prevent and support teenage mothers.
Birth control methods
Here are the types of birth control methods in the Philippines:
Women can choose from many different types of birth control methods. These include, in order of most effective to least effective at preventing pregnancy:
- Female and male sterilization (female tubal ligation or occlusion, male vasectomy) — Birth control that prevents pregnancy for the rest of your life through surgery or a medical procedure.
- Long-acting reversible contraceptives or “LARC” methods (intrauterine devices, hormonal implants) — Birth control your doctor inserts one time and you do not have to remember to use birth control every day or month. LARCs last for 3 to 10 years, depending on the method.
- Short-acting hormonal methods (pill, mini pills, patch, shot, vaginal ring) — Birth control your doctor prescribes that you remember to take every day or month. The shot requires you to get a shot from your doctor every 3 months.
- Barrier methods (condoms, diaphragms, sponge, cervical cap) — Birth control you use each time you have sex.
- Natural rhythm methods — Not using a type of birth control but instead avoiding sex and/or using birth control only on the days when you are most fertile (most likely to get pregnant). An ovulation home test kit or a fertility monitor can help you find your most fertile days.
Which types of birth control help prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs)?
Only two types can protect you from STIs, including HIV: male condoms and female condoms.
While condoms are the best way to prevent STIs if you have sex, they are not the most effective type of birth control. If you have sex, the best way to prevent both STIs and pregnancy is to use what is called “dual protection.” Dual protection means you use a condom to prevent STIs each time you have sex, and at the same time, you use a more effective form of birth control, such as an IUD, implant, or shot.
Which types of birth control can I get without a prescription?
You can buy these types of birth control over the counter at a drugstore or supermarket:
- Male condoms
- Female condoms
- Sponges
- Spermicides
- Emergency contraception (EC) pills. Plan B One-Step® and its generic versions are available in drugstores and some supermarkets to anyone, without a prescription. However you should not use EC as your regular birth control because it does not work as well as regular birth control. EC is meant to be used only when your regular birth control does not work for some unexpected reason.
How effective is the withdrawal method?
Not very! About 22 out of 100 women who use withdrawal as their only form of birth control for a year will get pregnant. See the chart above for how this number compares to other methods of birth control.
Withdrawal is when a man takes his penis out of a woman’s vagina (“pulls out”) before he ejaculates or “comes” (has an orgasm). This lowers the chance of sperm from going to the egg. “Pulling out” can be hard for a man to do. It takes a lot of self-control.
Even if you use withdrawal, sperm can be released before the man pulls out. When a man’s penis first becomes erect, some fluid may be on the tip of the penis. This fluid has sperm in it, so you could still get pregnant. Withdrawal also does not protect you from STIs, including HIV.