Sexual and contraceptive experience among teenagers in Uppsala

A questionnaire was offered to 181 sixteen-year-old boys (n = 88) and girls (n = 93) in different schools in the city of Uppsala. The questionnaire was introduced to the students by a nurse midwife during a regular lesson and included over 100 questions dealing partly with sexual education, attitudes towards sex and own experience of sex and contraception. Of the girls, 47% and of the boys, 31% answered that they had had intercourse. Twenty-eight per cent of the girls and 21.5% of the boys had had their first intercourse before the age of 15. Contraception was used at the first intercourse by 59% of the girls and by 70% of the boys. At the very first intercourse, the condom was the most commonly used contraceptive method. Increasing sexual experience changed the contraceptive pattern and at their last intercourse 48% of the girls were on the pill and 33% of the boys said that their girl friend was on the pill.