Starting student life well prepared
Young people who start studying make new contacts and often also engage in sexual relationships. During orientation days, they receive information about everything that is important to them as students. This is an excellent opportunity to also provide information about all contraceptive methods, so that students can prepare properly and in good time for sexual relationships.
Bayer’s Contraception Camper attracts a large audience with an exhibition about the history of contraception.
From ancient Egyptian practices, such as a mixture of honey and acacia thorns in the vagina and a pig’s bladder as a condom, to modern-day contraceptive methods. Rutgers provides the educational materials on contraception, while Sense nurses from the Municipal Health Services answer students’ questions and distribute condoms and gadgets.
Contraception not always used
The study 'Sex under 25' 2017 shows that almost 5% of MBO women and almost 2% of HBO/WO women have experienced an unplanned pregnancy. With their most recent partner, HBO/WO students more often always used contraception: 91% of women and 85% of men, compared with 81% of women and 72% of men in MBO. More than two-thirds of women in both HBO/WO and MBO currently use the pill as their method of contraception, some of them in combination with a condom. In HBO/WO, 14% of women use an IUD. That is twice as many as among young women in MBO. The patch, the ring, the contraceptive injection and the contraceptive implant are used only rarely.
Less reliable methods
With their most recent partner, 1 in 5 HBO/WO students had at some point used an unreliable method such as periodic abstinence or withdrawal. Among MBO students, approximately one-third had used such a ‘natural method’ with their most recent partner at some point.
No condom during a one-night stand
Of the HBO and WO students who had experience with sexual intercourse, 19% of men and 14% of women had had a one-night stand with their most recent sex partner. This applied to 24% of men and 12% of women in MBO. During this one-night stand, however, 41% of men and 50% of women in HBO/WO did not use a condom. Among MBO students, the figures were 40% and 38%, respectively. Approximately one-third of all men and women in MBO and HBO/WO agree with the statement: ‘If you carry condoms with you, you are looking for sex.’
Reasons for not using contraception
For sexually experienced HBO, WO and MBO female students who do not use contraception, the main reason is that they have not had sexual intercourse recently. One in five also gives as a reason that they do not want to use contraceptives. Some also indicate that they cannot afford them.
They do get tested for STIs
STI clinics see relatively many HBO and WO students. Apparently, they do realise that you risk contracting an STI if you do not use a condom. Since not all students use a reliable method of contraception, an STI consultation at Sense provides an excellent opportunity for a meaningful conversation, for example about the reliability of the various contraceptive methods and the importance of Double Dutch: contraception together with a condom. It can also cover how to prevent an STI and the fact that, as a man, you can never be certain whether a woman is using a reliable contraceptive method or whether she is using it correctly.
The Contraception Camper started on Wednesday, 14 August, in Leiden (see photos). It then tours universities, universities of applied sciences and MBO institutions in the Netherlands, visiting Utrecht, Maastricht, Eindhoven, Enschede, Leeuwarden, Amsterdam, Den Bosch, Heerlen, Zwolle and The Hague.
See the tour schedule at Medischwijzer.nl/anticonceptiecamper