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Many women are bolt down the pill for more than its maternity - prevention benefit , according to a study by the Guttmacher Institute . The work finds 33 percent of U.S. teenager and 14 percent of all U.S. women taking the oral birth control gadget are doing so solely to deal menstrual cramps or for another use not related to nascency control .
Overall , more than half of U.S. woman utilize the pill at least in part for non - prophylactic purposes .
This little pill can also help clear up acne and ease menstrual pain, which teens and other women are taking advantage of.
" It is well launch thatoral contraceptivesare substantive wellness care , because they preclude unintended pregnancies , " Guttmacher study investigator Rachel K. Jones said in a statement . " This study show that there are other authoritative wellness reasonableness why oral contraceptive should be readily usable to the jillion of women who rely on them each year . "
birth control pill survey
The investigator examined datum from the National Survey of Family Growth , a opinion poll administrate by the National Center for Health Statistics . In - person interviews of 7,356 women ages 15 to 44 were conducted between June 2006 and December 2008 , with results being weighted to assure the findings were nationwide representative .
Nationwide , about 11.2 million charwoman ages 15 to 44 , or 18 per centum of all U.S. women , currently useoral contraceptive pills . Of these woman , 86 per centum report hire the lozenge for parturition control . The other most commonly cited reason for taking the pill are : reducing cramps or catamenial pain ( 31 percent ) ; catamenial regulation ( 28 pct ) ; treatment of acne ( 14 pct ) ; and intervention of adenomyosis ( 4 per centum ) . Endometriosis is an often painful disorderliness in which tissue that normally lines the inside of the uterus grows elsewhere in the eubstance , typically within the pelvic neighborhood , grant to the Mayo Clinic .
moreover , 762,000 women who have never had sex use the anovulatory drug , chiefly for non - contraceptive purposes . Fifty - seven percent said they practice it to treat catamenial painful sensation , 43 percent for catamenial regulation , and 26 percent for acne intervention . [ The Pill turn 50 ]
The teenager years
Pill users eld 15 to 19 digest out in the sketch for their various non - prophylactic - related motivations . That makes sense , as menstrual - relate disorder and atypical periods are plebeian during the stripling year , Guttmacher research worker noted ; seventy percentage to 91 pct of female stripling describe awful periods , and 25 percent signal menstrual irregularity .
Of all women surveyed who used the pill , teens were the most likely ( 82 percent ) to practice birth control pills partially or only for non - contraceptive understanding . Amongteens who said they ’ve never had sex , 8 per centum use the pill , in most font for easing menstrual pain in the neck .
The survey did not ask about using the pill to plow less common medical problems such as hirsuteness ( unwanted , male - pattern hair growth in women ) , menstrual megrim and fibroid , so researchers noted their number may lowball the number of women who apply the pill for reason besides gestation prevention .
