Misty Media Sex Blog

October 26th 2005, 16:53 Jeff Sela

New guidelines have been published in an effort to raise awareness of long-term methods of contraception, in order to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies in the UK. NICE announced the initiative:

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Children's Health have produced a guideline recommending that long acting reversible contraception (LARC) should be offered to all women as part of their contraceptive choices. Long-acting reversible contraceptives are ones that the user does not have to think about every day or every time she has sex, as with methods such as the pill or condoms. Types of LARC include the contraceptive injection, contraceptive implants and intrauterine methods.

It's a shame that despite continued research and trials, no one has yet brought out a pill for men, leaving all long-term contraception in the hands of women. We can send a man to the moon, but we can't safely deactivate those little sperms.

Anyway, the reaction to these new guidelines seems to be mostly positive. Toni Belfield, in a press release from the Family Planning Association (fpa), welcomed them:

The professional guideline brings together all the relevant data on long-acting methods in an accessible format, so health professionals can be fully informed and provide them appropriately. We strongly support the recommendation that all professionals offering long-acting methods are fully trained, and would like to see greater development of the skill mix within general practice to support wider availability of contraception.

Good communication and partnership between professionals and users are essential to effective contraceptive consultations. Importantly, the guideline recognises the need for a woman-centred approach when discussing and providing contraception.

Predictably, of course, there are detractors, as there always are when it is suggested that people be given more information about sex. Matthew O'Gorman of the anti-abortion charity LIFE said:

Our particular concern is with the promotion of long acting contraceptives to teenagers and young people. Such a move would pour yet more petrol on the flames of our burgeoning sexual health crisis. Instead of young people being taught the value of faithful and loving relationships, promiscuity will be encouraged at a younger age with the prescription of long acting contraceptives acting as a supposed safety net.

While I'd agree that kids should be taught about the emotional implications of sex, all the evidence is that giving them all the facts actually results in them waiting longer before becoming sexually active, and being more responsible about it when they do. This new initiative is just one small step in making sex education in the UK less crap.

The fpa meanwhile is planning some research later this year, and will use its Contraceptive Awareness Week campaign next year (13–17 February, 2006) to “make women aware of the IUD, IUS, implant and injection”.

Update: Minette Marrin offers some interesting perspectives on why the fundies are up in arms about this in the Times (via Amorous Propensities):

So why the outrage from the usual suspects? Why is better contraception somehow worse? They ought to be against unwanted babies and against abortions but what they seem to be against is sex. For reasons I cannot understand they are convinced that larcs will lead to all too many more larks or what they tend to call “experimentation”.

They are wrong. These days there is no inhibition, which larcs might be imagined to remove, standing in the way of having as much sex as one wants or can get, with or without contraception, with or without the prospect of abortion. That revolution has happened. Larcs will make no difference.