Contraception in Latin American figures

More than 430 million inhabitants that populate 21 independent countries, make up the Latin American space. Your potential is huge and your problems, too.

An investigation by the Latin American Center for Health and Women (CELSAM) indicates that despite the policies of education and family orientation, promoted by different governments, the contraceptive methods in the region they continue to be well below developed countries: only 52 percent of Latin American women in fertile age (from 15 to 49 years of age) use contraceptive methods, a figure much lower than the European or North American averages.

Social and cultural reasons, together with a lack of education and information, they seem to be behind these indicators, the document says.

 

Worrying figures

CELSAM experts report that 48% of Latin American women of childbearing age do not use no method contraceptive to plan your family. Only 9.36% choose the pill as a method, when in Europe 33% of women use it. On the contrary, 23.2% of Latin American women prefer sterilization to prevent pregnancy and only 6% use condoms as a method.

These rates would be even more alarming, says CELSAM, without the contribution of Brazil, where 69% of women use family planning. In contrast, 68% of Venezuelan women use natural methods or do not use any. In Argentina, natural methods are preferred by 64% of women of childbearing age, and 61% in Colombia. In the case of Mexico, 53% of women do not use any method.

Different experts in family planning and demography emphasize that the lack of sexual education in schools and the lack of information oriented to women's health are, to a large extent, responsible for these figures.

It is estimated that in Latin America there are more than 130 million women of childbearing age , of which less than half use contraceptive methods, according to estimates made by Population Action International.
 


Video Medicine: Let's Talk Contraception - Youth Voices from Latin America & the Caribbean (March 2024).