Sex in Australia: Reproductive experiences and reproductive health among a representative sample of women

doi:10.1111/j.1467-842X.2003.tb00809.x

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Wiley InterScience

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health

Volume 27 Issue 2, Pages 204 - 209

Published Online: 25 Sep 2007

The official journal of the Public Health Association of Australia

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Sex in Australia: Reproductive experiences and reproductive health among a representative sample of women

Anthony M.A. Smith ¹ ^, ⁶ , Chris E. Rissel ² , Juliet Richters ³ , Andrew E. Grulich ⁴ Richard O. de Visser ⁵

¹ Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Victoria ² Health Promotion Unit, Central Sydney Area Health Service, and Australian Centre for Health Promotion, University of Sydney, New South Wales ³ National Centre in HIV Social Research, University of New South Wales ⁴ National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Research, University of New South Wales ⁵ Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Victoria

Correspondence to ⁶ Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, 215 Franklin Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000. Fax: (03) 9285 5220; e-mail: anthony.smith@latrobe.edu.au

ABSTRACT

Abstract

Objective To document the reproductive experiences of a representative sample of Australian women aged 16–59 years.

Method Computer-assisted telephone interviews were completed by a representative sample of 10,173 men and 9,134 women aged 16–59 years from all States and Territories. The overall response rate was 73.1% (69.4% among men, and 77.6% among women). Women were asked the number of times they had experienced a live birth, a still birth, a miscarriage and a termination of pregnancy.

Results : Of the women surveyed, 15.5% reported having experienced difficulty in becoming pregnant and 76.1% had been pregnant at least once. Nearly all the women who had been pregnant reported experiencing a live birth. Substantial minorities of women reported having experienced a miscarriage (33.4%) or a termination of pregnancy (22.6%). The percentage of women who reported becoming pregnant the first time as a teenager declined from 22.8% among women aged 50–59 to 16.9% among women aged 20–29. Of those who had had vaginal intercourse, 19.2% had used emergency contraception, 53.3% of them only once.

Conclusion There was clear evidence of substantial changes in the fertility of Australian women over the past 40 years.

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1467-842X.2003.tb00809.x About DOI