A brand new research within the annual BMJ Christmas subject suggests excessive ranges of unprotected intercourse throughout New Yr’s Eve celebrations within the U.S., with a rise in gross sales of levonorgestrel (Plan B) within the week after that surpasses different holidays.
On this video interview, research creator Brandon Wagner, PhD, of Texas Tech College in Lubbock, discusses the analysis.
The next is a transcript of his remarks:
The paper that we’re speaking about explores how emergency contraception gross sales in the USA enhance following sure holidays — particularly, New Yr’s Eve.
We discover, basically, an enormous leap. Yearly there is a substantial enhance in that week that follows New Yr’s Eve. That is type of in step with the timeline when it is efficient to take levonorgestrel — 96, probably 120 hours after unprotected sexual activity, although sooner is clearly higher. So this weekly knowledge, we discover that the weeks that comply with New Yr’s Eve have this sort of substantial enhance.
Simply as an concept of attempting to know what it was about New Yr’s, we checked out another holidays as nicely. Like we checked out a equally romantic themed vacation, Valentine’s Day, and also you see a rise — about half as a lot.
We checked out holidays the place numerous individuals are ingesting and also you would possibly count on that any intercourse is much less more likely to be protected — these are St. Patrick’s Day and the Fourth of July. And also you see a rise, however once more, nowhere close to as a lot — which type of leads us to suppose that there is simply one thing concerning the mixture of all of the elements for New Yr’s that results in excessive ranges of unprotected intercourse.
Stories from individuals round the USA recommend that folks have intentions or at the very least find yourself having intercourse following New Yr’s. Not simply that although, due to excessive substance consumption — like a whole lot of ingesting, cheering within the New Yr — numerous ingesting is generally related to much less chance to make use of contraception, or should you use it, much less doubtless to make use of it accurately. So that you won’t bear in mind to get a condom, however should you get one, you won’t bear in mind to place it on accurately.
The third subject is New Yr’s Eve celebration is a late-night celebration, proper? So whenever you’ve closed down the bars, if you’ll, there’s not a whole lot of locations open should you do have to cease and get contraception if you do not have it available.
Then lastly, the final subject is that there are comparatively excessive charges of sexual assault reported on New Yr’s, and in circumstances like that, contraception is usually much less widespread for use. So these are the 4 elements that led us to analyze whether or not there was this specific surge in gross sales following New Yr’s within the U.S.
It is laborious to speak about implications of reproductive rights entry within the U.S. with out acknowledging the dramatic sea change that we have seen within the final 12 months or so. Rising abortion restrictions following the Dobbs v. Jackson determination in 2022 imply that, as we’ve argued in our paper, emergency contraception is more and more essential for stopping undesirable pregnancies. Our outcomes and what we’re discovering listed below are actually in step with documenting substantial will increase in unprotected intercourse throughout these specific vacation intervals.
These are the sorts of issues that ought to draw consideration to — how can we meet the necessity for contraception in these intervals? How might we enhance supplier availability? How might we make it possible for individuals have contraceptives available and the wherewithal to make use of them accurately, or relying on the strategy, not having to do one thing within the second to make use of them accurately? These are the sorts of implications that we have tried to attract consideration to in our work.
I believe that what we have tried to do within the paper, and what I attempt to do extra typically in my work, is consider these issues, take into consideration these conditions as a rising in affect by a wide range of elements. So we have talked somewhat bit right here about how suppliers can play in, however it is a story that has numerous totally different parts, proper?
It has a narrative about how do individuals get entry to those and whether or not they can use insurance coverage or how a lot does it value? It has a narrative about [how] levonorgestrel is just not efficient for each particular person, each individual liable to being pregnant. Different types are more durable to get entry to; they require prescriptions or they require clinician visits.
So in some methods it is a story that has numerous totally different parts. Attempting to sort out this requires us to suppose systematically from numerous totally different views.
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