Sex education comes too late for teenage girls, the Centers for Disease Control said Tuesday. Among teen girls who were sexually experienced, 83 percent admitted they didn't learn about safe sex methods until after they'd become sexually active.
About 91 percent of young women aged 15 to 17 said they'd taken a formal sex education class that discussed birth control or ways to stay abstinent. Seventy-six percent of these girls talked about one or both of these topics with their parents.
But the fact that adolescent girls didn't get proper instruction early enough "represents a missed opportunity to introduce medically accurate information on abstinence and effective contraceptive use," researchers wrote in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Only 15 percent of these teens used a birth control method that was considered "moderately" effective the first time they had sex, including the pill, vaginal ring, IUD or hormonal implant. Another 62 percent used a "less effective" method, like condoms, sponges, the rhythm method or withdrawal. The remaining 23 percent reportedly didn't use any type of contraception.
The CDC encourages authority figures, like parents and teachers, to speak to teens.
"We as health professionals have the duty to give young people the necessary knowledge," said Ileana Arias, the CDC's principal deputy director.
On the other hand, teen birth rate for 15 to 19 year olds has declined by two-thirds since 1991 to 29.4 per 1,000 women.
"Although we have made significant progress reducing teen pregnancy, far too many teens are still having babies," CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a statement.
But birth rates vary depending on the demographic. They are two to three times higher among Hispanic and black teens than among white teens. Public health experts are especially concerned about births to younger teens because these mothers "are at greatest risk for poor medical, social, and economic outcomes," the researchers noted. And about one in four teenage births happens to young women between 15 and 17, the CDC said.
"We are talking healthy relationships, contraception and abstinence. They need to hear about all of it," Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute told NBC News.
