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done so in 1980–1984.3 Since the condom is widely available and does not require a visit to a provider, the rapid increase in its use at first intercourse suggests that young women and men may be relying less on family planning providers as their first source of protection against pregnancy. An analysis of 1982 NSFG data determined that 17% of sexually active women aged 15–24 in 1982 had visited a family planning provider before their first intercourse, and that an additional 10% had made their first visit within the same month.4 Among the remaining 73% (who waited at least a month), the median time to the first visit was 23 months. Thus, at the beginning of the 1980s, the vast majority of women who initiated sex did so before visiting a family planning provider, and the typical woman waited approximately two years to make her first visit. Traditional thinking has held that a long interval between first intercourse and first visit to a provider has negative implications for young people, since the months immediately after initiation of intercourse are a prime period for pregnancy to occur, due in part to low levels of contraceptive use.5 Past research has indicated that the Lawrence B. Finer is a doctoral candidate and Laurie Schwab Zabin is professor of population dynamics, both at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore. A previous version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Mar. 27–29, 1997. The research on which this article was based was primarily supported by grant HD07401 from the National Institutes of Health. The authors would like to thank Nan Astone, Christine Bachrach, Young Kim and Freya Sonenstein for their comments on earlier drafts. Does the Timing of the First Family Planning Visit Still Matter?