This study says young men are actually pretty knowledgeable about their partner’s birth control habits, which is really important for a healthy sex life

Contrary to popular belief, having a healthy sex life includes more than just getting tested regularly and being knowledgeable of sex ed (but these things are also important). Here’s an unexpected question to consider — how much do you know about your sexual partner’s birth control habits? And there’s some good news, because a new study says that young men are more knowledgeable about their partner’s birth control than people may expect (specifically in regards to men who have sex with women).

In a recent U.S. study conducted by the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and published in the American Journal of Men’s Health, researchers spoke to 2,238 men “whose last female sex partner was not someone they were living with or married to,” nor were they  interested in getting pregnant. Almost half of these men were aged between 15 and 24, and they asked them about birth control.

As reported by HuffPo, the researchers asked these men:

“That last time that you had sexual intercourse with (most recent partner) did she use any methods to prevent pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease?” If they answered yes, they were then asked about the contraceptives used by their female sex partner.

Samantha Garbers, one of the lead authors, said:

“We were relieved to find that almost all men of all age groups were able to answer the questions...Overall, 95 percent were able to answer both questions, and this did not differ significantly across age groups.

This study is important because the focus was on how young men are greatly unaware about their partners’ contraception use, leading to an increased chance of pregnancy occurring. By seeing how partners communicate, these results can help to directly affect the number of unplanned pregnancies.

One of the lead authors Samantha Garbers had this to say about the study in an email to Reuter’s Health: “The scope of the study was really just to look at whether we could use young men’s report in conducting evaluations of teen pregnancy prevention programs, or other research studies that rely on young men’s report.”

Dr. Rachel Welnerman also told Reuter’s Health: