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Teenagers offered implants to stop pregnancy for years
Last updated at 13:52pm on 07.02.08Teenage girls will be steered towards long-term contraceptives in the battle to reduce the number of underage pregnancies.
Many fail to take the traditional Pill regularly and cannot use condoms properly, ministers say.
These methods are having little impact on the teenage pregnancy rate, which remains the highest in Western Europe.
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The alternatives - such as contraceptive jabs and implants, and intrauterine coils - do not need to be topped up every day and last between three months and five years.
Ministers say the policy, backed with a £26.8million cash injection to the Health Service, could lead to a dramatic fall in the estimated 400,000 unwanted pregnancies each year.
But family rights campaigners warned that the move would encourage promiscuity and could fuel the rise in sexually-transmitted infections such as chlamydia.
Others expressed fears about side effects associated with the long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs).
The plan was unveiled yesterday by public health minister Dawn Primarolo at the launch of a new charity, the Association for Young People's Health.
She said: "There is increasing evidence of the key role contraception plays in preventing teenage pregnancy. We need to use this evidence and improve access to the full range of methods of contraception."
Although Britain's rate of teenage pregnancies has fallen from the peak years of the late 1990s, it is still the second highest in the Western world after the U.S. In 2005, there were 39,804 conceptions by under-18s in England - a rate of 41.3 per thousand.
The Department of Health said it wants to see greater use of LARCs because the success of condoms and contraceptive pills depends on "correct and consistent use".
It estimates that £100million a year could be saved by tackling the level of teenage conception.
At the moment, only 14 per cent of women use LARCs. But family planning clinics will be encouraged to use them rather than simply dishing out condoms and the Pill.
Doctors would probably be able to give underage girls the injections without consent from the parent, as they can the Pill.
Contraceptive injections can last between three months and five years
Mrs Primarolo said £12.8million would be handed to health authorities to be spent on initiatives to promote "the full range of methods of contraception" to women of all ages.
And £14million is earmarked for "innovative new ways" of helping young people get access to sexual health advice and contraception.
The ten regional health authorities will be asked to come up with proposals to promote contraception to young people and could be granted funding to run pilot projects.
Julie Bentley, chief executive of the Family Planning Association, said that LARCs are among the most effective contraceptive methods.
She said: "Once fitted, women don't need to think about using them and, with the exception of the injection, a woman's fertility returns straight away Primarolo at the launch of a new charity, the Association for Young People's Health.
She said: "There is increasing evidence of the key role contraception plays in preventing teenage pregnancy. We need to use this evidence and improve access to the full range of methods of contraception."
Although Britain's rate of teenage pregnancies has fallen from the peak saved by tackling the level of teenage conception.
At the moment, only 14 per cent of women use LARCs. But family planning clinics will be encouraged to use them rather than simply dishing out condoms and the Pill.
Doctors would probably be able to give underage girls the injections without consent from the parent, as they can the Pill.
Mrs Primarolo said £12.8million would be handed to health authorities to be spent on initiatives to promote "the full range of methods of contraception" to women of all ages.
And £14million is earmarked for "innovative new ways" of helping young people get access to sexual health advice and contraception.
The ten regional health authorities will be asked to come up with proposals to promote contraception to young people and could be granted funding to run pilot projects.
Julie Bentley, chief executive of the Family Planning Association, said that LARCs are among the most effective contraceptive methods.
She said: "Once fitted, women don't need to think about using them and, with the exception of the injection, a woman's fertility returns straight away once they're removed. Because LARCs are so effective, they also offer real cost savings to women and the NHS because there is less unplanned pregnancy and abortion."
However, possible side-effects of the implant include irregular periods, acne, weight gain, headaches and abdominal pain.
Wider choice: Women are to be offered contraceptive jabs rather than just the Pill
Some women suffer excessive bleeding. And concerns have been raised that the jab can lead to brittle bones. Also, some coils can make periods very heavy and carry a risk of infection.
Jackie Fletcher, of the anti-vaccine group Jabs, warned: "Any injection can potentially lead to damaging adverse reactions."
Norman Wells, from Family and Youth Concern, said that encouraging young girls to move away from condom use could further fuel rises in sexually-transmitted diseases.
At least one in ten underage girls has the sexually-transmitted HPV virus, which can cause cervical cancer.
Rates of chlamydia, which can make women infertile, are rising.
Mr Wells said: "The only way to avoid being infected with an STI is to keep sex within a lifelong mutually faithful marriage."
Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley said Labour had been complacent about teenage conception rates, and had had ten years to deliver change.
"And not only have primary care trusts already received half of this money from the Government, but we know on past form that money allocated for public health is not spent on public health."
Reader views (1)
Your quite rightly using the umbrella term "progestagen" for the active ingredients in these products unfortunately masks the very important difference between them. The long-lasting Provera (medroxyprogesterone acetate) in the injections and inter-uterine devices (but not the implants) does not break down into further active substances as does the body's natural progesterone, which it replaces. The body is therefore deprived of those substances. It is for that reason, recent research shows, that terrible side-effects, such as year-long, deep, intractable depression can come from even a single injection. Being injections, and there being no antidote, only time brings relief.
The victims having already been demonised as incapable of refusing sex or of reliably using other contraception, their complaints are routinely ignored. Deep, "inexplicable" depression can devastate anyone's life in many ways. During the teenage, school years, perhaps more effectively than at any other time.
The injections are terribly convenient to those pursuing targets for reduced pregnancies and are strongly promoted, but arguably should not be marketed at all.
Perhaps if we recognised that teenagers can be naturally driven to become pregnant (or make girls pregnant), we might be able to research how to moderate those instincts when they are excessive, instead of demonising the sufferers, failing to reduce the pregnancy rates, and wasting money.
- Jenny, Twickenham, England
