Adolescent sexuality in the United Kingdom

Sexual activity and contraception use

1952: The Family Planning Association, which was set up in the 1930s, began to offer contraceptive advice to single women who were just about to wed.^[1]

1954: A study in Manchester revealed that between the years 1937 and 1954, almost a quarter of under-age girls coming to the attention of one female police officer regarding underage sex were pregnant. It was also noted that the girls often came from backgrounds of broken homes or bad parental influence. It was found that they also tended to have a lower than average IQ.^[2]

1961: A study of Scottish women found that almost a quarter of single women were sexually experienced before their 20th birthday, the proportion having risen from 6% during the late 1940s and 15% during the late 1950s. The findings of the study showed that there was a clear increase in sexual intercourse among young single women after the advent of the contraceptive pill in 1961.^[3]

The combined oral contraceptive pill became available, though initially only to married women. The proportion of teenage women who were married rose from 5% in 1951 to 8%.

1964: The first comprehensive survey of sexual behaviour in United Kingdom amongst unmarried teenagers revealed that a third of boys and almost one in six girls were sexually experienced by the age of 18. Plus one in twenty girls under 16 were sexually active.^[4] It also estimated that around one in three teenage girls who engaged in premarital sexual intercourse fell pregnant.^[5] Also revealed in the survey was that one in five of sexually experienced girls and two-fifths of sexually experienced boys always used birth control, the most common form of birth control being the condom used by around 80% of the sexually active teenagers.^[6][4]

Helen Brook set up the Brook Advisory Centres, offering contraceptive advice to young single people under the age of 25.

1967: A change in the law allowed local health authorities to offer contraceptive services to unmarried people if they so wished, though by 1968 only one in six authorities were providing such a service.^[8] Mr K. Robinson, answering a question in the House of Commons regarding the new Family Planning Act in October 1967, stated that it would be unwise to exclude girls under 16 from receiving advice at family planning clinics (FPC), though these girls would only be seen at FPCs in exceptional circumstances even with parental consent.^[9]

1969: Brook Advisory Centres were now offering contraceptive advice to over ten thousand unmarried people under 25, the majority aged between 19 and 21, with around one in six being under 19.^[10]

1970: The Family Planning Association were now mandated to offer contraception to unmarried people.

1971: A doctor was reported for informing the parents of a 16-year-old girl that she had come to him seeking contraception. This prompted the British Medical Association to advise doctors to maintain young patients' confidentiality when seeking contraception. Three quarters of teenagers visiting Brook Advisory Centres during the early 1970s were doing so without their parents' knowledge.^[10]

A survey of Scottish single female students revealed that a third had had sexual intercourse by the age of 18, with over half not using any form of contraception. The survey also showed that one in seven girls who had recently been sexually active had had a partner who was a casual boyfriend.^[11]

Controversy was sparked when a 12-year-old girl who had recently undergone an abortion was put on the contraceptive pill with her parents' consent by gynecologist Dr Mary Wilson at Calthorpe nursing home in Birmingham. She said "so many girls come back pregnant again after three or four months, that is why I gave her a supply of the pill and contraceptive advice". Labour MP Leo Abse was concerned that the prescribing of the pill to a 12-year-old child was an offence under the sexual offences act.^[12]

1975: Under the new National Health Service reorganisation act contraception was made available free of charge to everyone, including single people and those aged under 16. Clarification was given to doctors that they could provide contraception to patients under 16 without parental consent in certain circumstances.

The average age of first sexual intercourse for girls had now dropped from 21 in the mid-1950s to 18. Over a quarter of boys under 16 and almost one in eight girls under 16 were now sexually experienced.^[13]

1976 A report by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service found that 69 percent of girls under 16 who came to them for an abortion during the year had used no contraception. Most of them were experienced at sex.^[14]

1978: Brook Advisory Centres were now government funded and 3% of Brook's clients were now under the age of 16.

1980: A review of the 1974 DHSS circular about parental consent and the issuing of contraception/abortion advice to girls under 16, concluded that a doctor or a professional worker should always seek to persuade the child to involve her parents or guardian at the earliest stage of consultation. Though it was accepted that occasionally contraception would be given without parental consent.^[15]

1983: Cuts in health service expenditure forced the closure of many family planning clinics and a restriction in the services available to young people.^[16]

1984: In a high court ruling in favour of Victoria Gillick it was deemed illegal for health professionals to advise or give girls under 16 contraceptives without parental consent except in exceptional circumstances.^[17]

1985: The House of Lords overturned the high court ruling and confidential contraceptive advice to young people was restored.^[18]

1986: The number of girls under 16 visiting family planning clinics in England reached over seventeen thousand in 1983. In 1985 the number dropped to twelve thousand due to the high court ruling it illegal to provide confidential contraception to under-16s; the number rose again to sixteen thousand in 1986 following the decision by the house of lords to overturn the high court ruling.^[19]

1991: In the first sex survey of its kind, the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL) revealed that one in six girls under 16 and a quarter of boys under 16 were sexually experienced.^[20]

A survey revealed that a fifth of sexually active 16- and 17-year-olds and over half of 18- and 19-year-olds were using at least one method of contraception.^[21]

2001: The second NATSAL showed that the average age of first intercourse had dropped from 17 in the 1980s to 16. It also revealed that a quarter of girls and nearly a third of boys were sexually experienced before the age of 16.^[22]

2005: The number of girls under 16 visiting family planning clinics had risen throughout the 1990s to peak at over ninety-one thousand in 2003, before falling to eighty-three thousand. The most popular choice was the condom with over half choosing this method of contraceptive.^[23]

Sexually transmitted infections

1954: study in Manchester showed that there was an increase in the number of teenage men and women visiting sexual health clinics for treatment of venereal disease. 23% of women seen at these clinics were teenagers compared to 10% in 1939. In men it rose from 3.8% in 1939 to 4.8%.^[24]

1963: 27% of all women attending sexual health clinics with the sexually transmitted infection Gonorrhoea was under the age of 20.^[6] This percentage was an increase on 1957 when 23% of women visiting STI clinics were under 20.^[25]

1971: The number of teenagers visiting sexual health clinics with gonorrhoea reached over ten thousand, 60% were girls and one in twenty were under 16.^[26]

1976: The rate of new cases of gonorrhoea diagnosed at sexual health clinics amongst girls under 16 in England had increased more than threefold since 1966 from 2.76 per hundred thousand of the population to 9.38. Amongst boys under 16 the rate had gone up from 0.94 to 2.19.^[27][28]

1981: A third of all women visiting sexual health clinics in England with gonorrhoea were under 20. The number of persons under 16 being diagnosed with Gonorrhoea in England fell from 637 in 1976 to 361.^[29]

1996: There were over ten thousand new cases of gonorrhoea to teenagers reported in sexual health clinics up over 30% from 1995 and over seven thousand new cases of Chlamydia to teenagers up over 16% from 1995.^[30]

2005: The number of new cases of gonorrhoea reported at sexual health clinics occurring to teenagers had fallen since the 1970s, from over ten thousand, to three thousand seven hundred. Levels of chlamydia had risen throughout the 1980s and 1990s and was now the most common sexually transmitted infection amongst teenagers with over thirty thousand new cases reported, almost 28% of all new cases.^[31]

2006: A screening programme of young people by the Department of Health revealed that 12% of girls aged 16–19 and 13% of men aged 20–24 were infected with the STI Chlamydia.^[32]

References

See also

• Adolescent sexuality
• Teenage pregnancy in the United Kingdom