Contraception in teenagers.

This review of the special problems of contraception in teenagers has focused on the need for increased efforts in sex education and family-planning and abortion services for this age group. A clear-cut need for new imperatives in these areas is apparent from the data showing an alarming increase in the incidence and rates of unwanted teenage pregnancy and the increased incidence of teenage sexual activity, as compared with earlier times, and its occurrence at earlier ages than previously. Special counseling, education, physical examination procedures, and care and prescription are required when the physician is considering various methods of contraception for adolescents. In the development of adolescent education for responsible sexual behavior, it behooves physicians to keep in mind that it is the members of this age group, in part on the basis of their reactions to the quality of medical care they receive, who will decide and instill the attitudes toward these important issues in the next generation of Americans.