The French population in general uses fewer contraceptives. This is one of the many lessons learned, on Wednesday, November 13, by the extensive survey “Context of sexualities in France”, carried out at the initiative of the ANRS-Infectious Diseases in collaboration with the National Institute of Health and Medical Research ( Insert). According to data collected between November 2022 and December 2023 from 21,259 people in mainland France, the use of a contraceptive method (all types combined) during first sexual intercourse is decreasing especially among women, going from a high of 98, 3% in 2004. -2006 to 87.2% in 2019-2023. The curve is the same for men, although with a slight increase in the last ten years, reaching 92.3% in 2019-2023.
Regarding the more specific use of condoms during the first sexual relationship, reaches, in 2019-2023, 75.2% among women and 84.5% among men. After experiencing an explosion between the 1970s and 2000s, the use of contraceptive methods at the time of entry into sexual life is suffering an erosion, despite stagnating since the 2000s at a fairly high level.
“Few people started their sexual life between 2019 and 2023 among those surveyed, so these results have yet to be confirmed, particularly among women, but the drop in condom use is a warning sign.”underlines Caroline Moreau, epidemiologist at Inserm, who led the survey together with sociologist Nathalie Bajos and demographer Armelle Andro. This shows that more attention needs to be paid to sexual education and health. » This relationship with prevention remains valid for all ages, since, in 2023, only 49.4% of women and 52.6% of men used a condom during their first sexual relationship with a known partner in the last twelve months.
An increase in unwanted pregnancies
Among those surveyed, nearly 6,000 agreed to take a self-sample (vaginal or urinary), allowing researchers to assess the prevalence of infections for the first time. Genital mycoplasma – a bacteria that causes a sexually transmitted infection (STI) – in France, 3.1% in women and 1.3% in men. infections with chlamydia trachomatis are estimated at 0.9% among women and 0.6% among men, figures comparable to those of 2006. These data tend to show, in a context of increase in STIs at European level, that these trends do not They affect only highly exposed populations and not the entire population. People who have had more than one partner in twelve months are at greater risk than those who have one or only one partner.
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