Indeed! Even assuming I’m somewhat better than typical, condoms make me a bit nervous.
Considering that most people are sexually active for far more than one year, that 2% rate is completely meaningless.
(Frivolous nitpicking) Yeah, but I think it’s probably one of the better units of measure they could have chosen. “Per intercourse event” would probably be so low that people wouldn’t grok the fact that their overall chances were much worse. But any unit more than a year doesn’t make much sense.
I suppose, like, five or ten years might make sense. But it seems to me that the length of people’s sex lives and time of usage of different birth control methods vary enough that even that could be overkill. Like, if you try out a method for a few months to a year, the 5-year prognosis won’t necessarily be relevant to you. Although I suppose you wouldn’t necessarily plan to use a method for less than 5 years, in which case, that’s what would be relevant to your decision making, even if you don’t end up using it for that long.
The problem is, people are mistaking them for lifetime rates, and they are not. If people are trying to use them as lifetime rates when they’re not, then that’s just not going to work.
Indeed! Even assuming I’m somewhat better than typical, condoms make me a bit nervous.
(Frivolous nitpicking) Yeah, but I think it’s probably one of the better units of measure they could have chosen. “Per intercourse event” would probably be so low that people wouldn’t grok the fact that their overall chances were much worse. But any unit more than a year doesn’t make much sense.
I think a decent measure would be P(getting pregnant|one intercourse with condom)/P(getting pregnant|one intercourse without condom).
Do you really think the average person being/needing information about condoms can understand that?
If worded as “Using a condom reduces the chances of getting pregnant by X%” or “by N times”, probably.
Good for you. They should make everybody nervous!
It would be more accurate to reality, and would aid people in family planning. What about this does not make sense?
I suppose, like, five or ten years might make sense. But it seems to me that the length of people’s sex lives and time of usage of different birth control methods vary enough that even that could be overkill. Like, if you try out a method for a few months to a year, the 5-year prognosis won’t necessarily be relevant to you. Although I suppose you wouldn’t necessarily plan to use a method for less than 5 years, in which case, that’s what would be relevant to your decision making, even if you don’t end up using it for that long.
The problem is, people are mistaking them for lifetime rates, and they are not. If people are trying to use them as lifetime rates when they’re not, then that’s just not going to work.