Testing fell, and the contraception numbers went both ways

The 2019 and 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Surveys bracket the pandemic, which
makes them a before-and-after on whether adolescents could still reach sexual
and reproductive health services.

Both fell by roughly a quarter. Testing requires a visit, and the visits
stopped.

The contraception numbers pull apart

Among sexually active students reporting opposite-sex or both-sexes contact,
at last intercourse:

Long-acting contraception nearly doubled, and using nothing rose by a quarter.

Those look contradictory and are not. A long-acting method is fitted once and
keeps working with no further appointments, no prescription and no pharmacy —
so it is exactly the method that survives a period when getting to a clinic is
hard. Anything needing resupply is vulnerable to the same disruption, and some
of the people who lost access to it ended up using nothing.

The gap between the two rows is the population this data is worried about:
students who did not get the appointment that would have given them the
implant.

What it is measured against

**Disproportionate rates of STDs, including HIV, and of unintended pregnancy
among adolescents persist** — the reason these outcomes are tracked at all.
Falling testing does not mean falling infection; it means less of it is being
found.

The analysis covers **HIV testing (lifetime), STD testing (past 12 months),
condom use at last intercourse, and primary contraceptive method at last
intercourse**, broken down by **sex, age, race and ethnicity, and the sex of
sexual contacts**. Except for HIV testing, it is limited to **currently
sexually active students.**

**Because of disruptions throughout the pandemic, results underscore the
importance of improving access to a range of health services for
adolescents.**

A range is the operative phrase. The IUD row shows that one part of the
service held up precisely because it needs the fewest interactions — and the
rest of the list shows what happened to everything that needs more.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, MMWR Supplements.