Family planning visits to private physicians

The NAMCS data indicate that women aged 15--44 made an estimated 9.7 million visits to office-based physicians in 1977 during which they obtained medical family planning services, examinations or counseling. Two hundred such visits were made per 1,000 women of reproductive age during the year. The majority of these visits were by women aged 20--34. Family planning services were included in five percent of all office visits made by women of reproductive age. While the rate of family planning visits to physicians' offices varied by race, geographical area and urban/rural setting, these variations reflected the distribution of visits for all purposes, and not the distribution of family planning visits in particular. According to the NAMCS, men aged 20--54 made an estimated 791,000 family planning visits to office-based physicians in 1977. This indicates that there were about 17 office family planning visits per 1,000 men in this age-group, or about 12 visits by women for every one by men.