All Adolescents Deserve Routine Conversations About Sexual Activity and Pregnancy Prevention.

It is essential that physicians who take care of adolescents, whether in specialty practice or primary care, learn to routinely address adolescent sexuality and reproductive health care. According to our most recent Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 64.1% of 12th graders have had sexual intercourse ≥1 time, and 49.3% of 12th graders have had sexual intercourse with at least ≥1 person in the last 3 months. Unfortunately, only 53% of those 12th graders had used a condom during their last sexual encounter, and only 32.2% of those 12th graders had used a birth control pill, intrauterine device, implant, shot, patch, or ring during their last sexual encounter.1