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AAP Issues Birth Control Guidelines for Teen Girls

advocatesaz.org

The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued new guidelines for teenage girls who use birth control.

The physicians group says long-acting contraceptive devices-the I.U.D. and hormonal implants -should be the first choice for teen girls who don't want to practice abstinence.

Dr. Kate Greenberg, adolescent medicine specialist at Golisano Children's Hospital, said the AAP guidelines echo the recommendations of other expert groups in the past several years.               

"Including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists since about 2012, which is that these longer-acting and reversible methods of birth control are the safest and most effective and most appropriate for teenagers."

Greenberg said the problem with birth control pills is that the patient has to remember to take them every day, and that leaves a lot of room for error.

"The more often you have to remember something, the less likely it is to be effective. Because remembering to do something every day is a lot harder than it perhaps it should be, but the reality is, it's harder for people to remember to take a pill every day."

It’s important, Greenberg said, for pediatricians to be able to discuss birth control with young women. "Healthy sexual health decision making includes a lot of stuff, which could be abstinence, which we know is 100 percent effective. But, young women aren't necessarily able to do that 100 percent of the time,” Greenberg said. “So, when young women decide they're ready to become sexually active, we as pediatricians should be trusted sources of information on the most effective methods of pregnancy prevention."

Greenberg said that while condoms are not the preferred method of birth control, they should be used together with other forms of contraception to protect against sexually transmitted disease.

Beth Adams joined WXXI as host of Morning Edition in 2012 after a more than two-decade radio career. She was the longtime host of the WHAM Morning News in Rochester. Her career also took her from radio stations in Elmira, New York, to Miami, Florida.