Officials cite low rate of condom use

Officials cite low rate of condom use

Unplanned pregnancies on UCLA campus result in struggling
students

By Matt Sorokotyazh

Pleasure, HIV and death all share the lack of one thing ­ a
condom, experts warned.

Childish attitudes among UCLA students toward using
contraceptives result in a growing number of unwanted pregnancies
on campus, officials said. They estimated that a lot of students
either don’t use contraceptives at all or don’t use them regularly.
Yet contraceptives are easily available and fairly reliable.

Out of 1,004 women who suspected that they were pregnant, 127
turned out to be correct, in the period from October 1994 to April
1995, according to the Women’s Health Clinic records. It is
impossible to get figures on the number of women who may have
visited other clinics, clinic officials said.

There are at least several single parents in their early 20s
whose children are enrolled at the UCLA Child Care Center, said Gay
McDonald, the director at the center. There are student families
that have more than one child, she continued. "Some students are
clearly struggling," she said. "I never ask how did this child get
here. I always say, ‘we’re happy to help,’" she said, adding that
she realized many of these children were not planned.

"(Whereas) some students are happy to find that they’re
pregnant, most students I talked to did not plan to get pregnant,"
said Ann Downie, the nurse manager at the Women’s Health Clinic. As
a result, "(not) many of them continue their pregnancy," she
added.

Abortion is not available at Student Health Services, but a
woman who wants an abortion would be referred to an abortion
clinic, Downie said. It is important for a woman who has just found
out that she is pregnant to have someone to talk to and Student
Health Services provides counseling, she continued.

Pregnancy tests are free to currently registered students, but
are not free to currently registered students’ girlfriends, Downie
said.

Despite all the risks, many students still don’t protect
themselves by using contraceptives.

UCLA students either do not use contraceptives at all or use
them irregularly, Downie said. Of course, condoms can break and all
contraceptives have a certain failure rate, she continued.
"(Condoms) break more often than I’d like them to," she said.
Consequently, women should use vaginal spermicide, a preparation
that kills the sperm in case of breakage, she recommended.

"(While) my feeling is that the best contraceptive is what the
partners are most comfortable with, the best single method
statistically is a birth control pill," Downie said.

Despite this fact, however, she recommended using condoms and
vaginal spermicide to protect against sexually transmitted diseases
as well as against pregnancy.

Different brands of birth control pills are the same as far as
their effectiveness is concerned, Downie said. To buy pills, a UCLA
student can make an appointment for a free gynecological exam in
order to get a prescription, she explained. Only a very small
number of women can’t use a pill because of health problems, she
added.

Pills are relatively inexpensive, said Anita Washington Murphy,
Student Health Services Pharmacy supervisor. At the pharmacy, a set
of birth control pills for one cycle costs $9 and a year supply
costs only $57, she said. Condoms are also cheaper at the pharmacy
than the same brand name condoms elsewhere. Twelve lubricated
condoms sell for only $5.50, and 12 dry condoms cost $3.25, she
added.

"Female condoms don’t seem to have quite as high an
effectiveness rate as male condoms, but definitely they are better
than nothing," Downie said. Female condoms give a woman an
opportunity not to rely on male partners to obtain the
contraceptive, she explained.

But some students said women should make sure men wear condoms
anyway. "If a woman is smart, she would not have sex with someone
who doesn’t wear a condom," said Melody Nosce, a third-year
psychology student.

One can buy three female condoms at the student health services
pharmacy for $5.50, Murphy said.

Many men don’t like using condoms because they feel restricted,
and the sensation is reduced, Downie said. The research in male
contraception has not come up with anything that works, she
continued. And since it is not men who become pregnant, it is clear
that women should not rely on them when it comes to contraception,
she concluded.

In fact, since ultimately it is a woman who gets pregnant,
contraception is her responsibility, Downie said.

"But it takes two to get pregnant," said Ann Hsu, a second-year
biology student.

"Since a woman can’t get pregnant alone, contraception should be
both men’s and women’s responsibility," Nosce said.

The risk of becoming pregnant as a result of unprotected sex is
real, but no less real than the agony of monitoring your T-cell
level which drops during AIDS with every beat of your heart, and
yet many students ignore the risk. "Some students think that this
once, it won’t matter," Downie said. "But I met people where it did
matter."