Most teens didn’t use a condom the last time they had sex. That worries health officials – CBC
Condoms protect against pregnancies and STIs but are ‘never discussed’ by teens
Sep 11, 2024
The bowl of free condoms in the student office might need to be dusted off.
A recent report based on surveys of 15-year-olds in 42 countries, including Canada, shows what the World Health Organization called a worrying decline in the use of condoms, which provide protection from unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
In Canada, roughly two-thirds of teens surveyed who said they had sex in the 2021-22 school year didn’t use a condom the last time they had intercourse. That decline in condom use, down two percentage points for boys and four for girls since 2014, occurred as teens saw a gap in sex-ed lessons during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, health experts told CBC News.
In August, the Public Health Agency of Canada noted rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and infectious syphilis have all been trending upward. Canada also saw a nearly 25 per cent increase in new HIV diagnoses in 2022 over 2021, with Saskatchewan and Manitoba leading with the highest rates.
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/condoms-teens-1.7316319
