Why condom use is down among young Americans

(2 Oct 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Seattle - 1 October 2024
1. Various of condom baskets at University of Washington health clinic
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Joel Schwartzkopf, executive director University of Washington student clinic:
"For Millennials, Gen Xers and older alike it kind of just used to be condoms only, right? And when you think about that middle school sex ed class, it was really like, hey, wear a condom or else. And there weren't a lot of other choices, right? If you didn't wear a condom, if you got exposed to an STI, you had to go in and get tested and get treated. Well, now there are, you know, a wide range of other options like the one I just mentioned is like, you know, PreP and PaP and, you know, long acting reversible contraception. And I think that has led to some complacency in terms of, if I don't use a condom, I can just use this. And that has certainly been borne out in some of the data. Certainly the research that we've seen here at the University of Washington and elsewhere in our academic counterparts."
3. Various of condom baskets at University of Washington health clinic
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Joel Schwartzkopf, executive director University of Washington student clinic
"Subjectively, though, I can tell you that here at Husky Health Center, we order more and more condoms and safer sex supplies every year. So we are seeing them literally fly off the shelves."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Sacramento, California - 7 October 2019
5. STILL of HIV prevention
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Sacramento, California - 8 July 2016
6. STILL of antibiotic doxycycline that treats chlamydia, gonorrhea or syphilis infections.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ARCHIVE: Sacramento, California - 26 August 2019
7. STILL of hormonal birth control
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Seattle - 30 September 2024
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Steven Goodreau, University of Washington researcher:
"So we certainly have seen a rise in some of the different sexually transmitted infections over the over the last few years. And it's kind of hard to figure out exactly the patterns because COVID messed everything up in the data and people's sex lives, you know, and so on. But it's very clear that, you know, gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, these sort of things are generally on the rise. And there's probably a bunch of reasons for them. But reduced condom use across the board is is clearly a big part of that story."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Seattle - 1 October 2024
9. Various of students on campus
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Andi Triplett, University of Washington student:
"Any of my friends that either didn't use a condom one time or haven't a couple of times, it was always the one 'I'm on birth control or well, I can get plan B' and all of the guy friends that I have tend to also do the same. Or they're like, 'Well, she's on birth control, so it's, it's fine and it doesn't matter.'"
11. Various of students on campus
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Annie Loomis, University of Washington student:
13. Medium of feet walking
STORYLINE:
Fewer young people are having sex, but the teens and young adults who are sexually active aren't using condoms as regularly, if at all. And people ages 15 to 24 made up half of new chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis cases in 2022.
The downward trend in condom usage is due to a few things: medical advancements like long-term birth control options and drugs that prevent sexually transmitted infections; a fading fear of contracting HIV; and widely varying degrees of sex education in high schools.
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