Key Facts

• there have been around 2.6 million attendances at NHS community contraception clinics every year over the last decade, but there was a decline of 4 per cent to 2.5 million in 2006-07. These attendances are made predominantly (91 per cent) by women: about 1.1 million and 0.1 million men
• of the 1.1 million women attending community contraception clinics, the proportion aged under 16 has increased over the last 10 years from 6 per cent to 7 per cent
• the number of men attending clinics has increased by 48 per cent over the last 10 years to 117,000. In 2006-07, there was an increase of 20 per cent in males attendances on 2005-06, mainly due to an increase in the 16-17 age group (54 per cent) with about 30,000 visiting a clinic
• Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives (LARCs) accounted for 21 per cent of primary methods of contraception. LARCs include: IUD, injectable contraception, implants and IUS.

Summary

This bulletin contains information on NHS community contraception services on KT31 return, it includes services provided by:

• trusts in NHS clinics and as domiciliary visits
• brook services.

It does not include services provided by consultants in out-patient clinics or those provided by General Practitioners. However limited data is presented in this publication on out-patient clinics from The Information Centres' (ICs') Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and prescription data from the Prescribing Support Unit (PSU).

Some of the data for 2005-06 have been revised in this bulletin and the tables are marked accordingly.

'Contraception and Sexual Health 2006/07', is published on the same day by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on behalf of The IC. This is a sample survey of women aged 16 to 49 and men aged 16-69, in Great Britain, and gives an overview of all contraception used irrespective of whether it is provided by the NHS or not. It also asks about sexual behaviour and knowledge of sexually transmitted infections.

Detailed results from this survey are available from the ONS web site.

ISBN Reference: 978-1-84636-164-7