ty in young men should be encourages. Men of all ages must be educated about responsible sexual behaviour, and be encouraged to treat women as equals and respect them. Lastly, there needs to be cutting edge research that will expand the current limited choices of available male contraceptives.
Over the past 50 years, birth control for women has been refined to the point that there are now dozens of alternatives that are far safer than pregnancy, many of which have added benefits like reducing menstrual symptoms, acne, or even the risk of cancer. The array includes three kinds of long-acting “fit and forget” contraceptives that are over 20 times better than the familiar “pill” but allow a quick return to normal fertility. But, after all this time, men are still stuck choosing between two century-old choices: condoms and vasectomies. Better Birth Control for Men: 8 Promising Possibilities
From Invisible to Visible
When considering young people, it is important to recognize and address the diverse of needs of young people. These include but are not limited to young married couples, sexually and non-sexually active teenagers, young mothers, mentally and physically challenged, sexual minorities and domestic workers. It is also important that programming work and policy development often do not include young people that are in different circumstances like refugees, street children, poor and uneducated youth who all have rights and varying contraceptive needs that should be comprehensively addressed. Finally, to ensure we leave no one behind and avoid reinforcing chronic inequalities, we must encourage innovation and development of new methods to expand contraceptive choices for all people. As parents, researchers, policymakers and educators alike, it is in our collective best interests to help meet the needs of young people by ensuring access to contraceptives is widespread, well funded, supported and protected.