The use of hormonal contraceptives among young women is associated with an immediate increase in the probability of sexual intercourse, according to new research published in The Journal of Sex Research. The findings suggest that reduced fears of unintended pregnancy play a more important role than potential hormone-related declines in sexual functioning.
Despite the popularity and widespread use of various birth control methods, surprisingly little is known about how hormonal contraception affects the sexual behavior of young women. The authors behind the new research used a large and longitudinal dataset to investigate whether hormonal contraception use predicted sexual frequency.
“There’s been a lot of buzz about the negative sexual side effects that can come from hormonal contraception use for some women,” said study author Shari M. Blumenstock, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. “I was curious whether this translated to actual sexual behaviors — whether sexual frequency decreased after women started a hormonal contraceptive. The studies that have looked at this before have been quite small or only assessed a single time point.”
For their new study, the researchers examined data from 893 women who had participated in the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life study, an intensive longitudinal study of young women in the racially and socioeconomically diverse community of Genesee County in Michigan. Starting when they were 18 or 19 years old, the participants completed weekly surveys for 2.5 years that assessed relationship status, contraception use, sexual intercourse, and experiences with pregnancy.
Blumenstock and her colleagues found that women tended to engage in sexual intercourse more frequently when they were using hormonal contraceptives. This was true even after controlling for factors such as relationship duration, commitment levels, adolescent sexual/reproductive history, family background and childhood characteristics, and demographic variables. Women had over three times higher odds of engaging in sexual intercourse during the weeks they used hormonal contraceptives compared to the weeks they did not.
“After these young women started using a hormonal contraceptive, their sexual frequency with an intimate partner immediately increased, and stayed high for many months (for all the methods except the shot),” Blumenstock told PsyPost. “This suggests that when women have control over their fertility and reproductive health, they may find intercourse much more appealing and be more likely to have sex.”
Regarding the limitations of the research, Blumenstock noted that the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life study only measured penile-vaginal intercourse. “This focus makes sense in a study of contraception because it is the only sexual behavior that can result in an unwanted pregnancy,” she noted. “However, it leaves out numerous other aspects of partnered sexuality, such as other sexual behaviors, sexual enjoyment and satisfaction, sexual functioning, as well as the experiences of the partner.”
“Another consideration is that these were young women from a single geographical area in the Midwest United States, so the results may not generalize to women in older age groups or other geographical or cultural spaces,” Blumenstock added. “Also, the vast majority of hormonal contraception use was the pill; future research with more equal frequencies of each method would be an important next step.”
The study, “Hormonal Contraception Use and Sexual Frequency across Young Women’s Intimate Relationships“, was authored by Shari M. Blumenstock and Jennifer S. Barber.