Abstract
This chapter investigates patterns of contraceptive use among Australian women who are at ‘risk’ of pregnancy: that is, women of reproductive age who are sexually active. The aims of this chapter are to determine how women control their fertility, and how contraceptive use varies over the reproductive life course. There are many factors that are associated with contraceptive method use to prevent or delay pregnancy. Availability and access to methods is an important consideration, and the chapter starts with an overview of the contraceptives available in Australia, from the most popular through to the lesser-used methods. Contraceptive method use in Australia is also compared with a number of other countries. Method use is then compared for different sections of the population. Important factors that have been found to be associated with contraceptive method use include age, partnership status, education, religiosity, family size (number of children ever born), and fertility intentions. An emphasis is placed on the type of method used and the timing of fertility intentions. This chapter uses information on contraceptive method use and fertility intentions collected in the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey as part of the Generations and Gender modules in 2005, 2008 and 2011.
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Notes
- 1.
While most countries asked about contraceptive used up to age 49, for comparability the age range 18–44 is used as Austria does not ask women aged over 44 about contraceptive method.
- 2.
Multivariate analysis of the use of vasectomy and tubal ligation is not included because respondents are not asked about fertility intentions. One can assume that these methods have been used because the respondent does not intend to have a child in the future.
- 3.
Note that as vasectomy and tubal ligation are widely used in Australia as contraceptive methods, they are included as contraceptive methods in the analysis of factors associated with contraceptive type for Australia. It is not possible to include vasectomy and tubal ligation as contraceptives in the comparative analysis because there is such a wide difference in the information collected between countries.
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Gray, E., Arunachalam, D. (2015). Patterns of Contraceptive Use. In: Heard, G., Arunachalam, D. (eds) Family Formation in 21st Century Australia. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9279-0_7
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