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Ah, the argument over contraception continues.
The UK’s Daily Express recently reported that at the urging of family planning officials, doctors have been recommending that girls as young as thirteen consider long term birth-control options such as shots and implants.
Obviously this has sparked the usual debate between those who think that this offering of contraception will encourage promiscuity, and those who believe that it is important to offer women the choice to prevent unwanted pregnancy and promote the appropriate use of contraceptives.
As a sex educator I am inclined to agree with the latter, however, I have a few reasons why I would disagree with the offering of long term contraceptive options … that don’t include the age old promiscuity argument.
Depo Provera, or “The Shot,” is a method of birth control in which huge amounts of the progestin hormone are given to an individual via injection every three months. This version of birth control is useful, especially in impoverished areas of the world where women either cannot afford birth control pills and/or their husbands refuse to wear condoms. It is a long lasting, cost effective method of birth control. However, let me reiterate: Depo Provera is three months worth of a hormone being put into your body in your body that you can’t get rid of. Which can cause a multitude of problems including bone loss and osteoporosis, anxiety or worsening of pre-existing emotional/mental health conditions, irregular menstrual bleeding, delayed return of fertility, and birth defects. Other studies suggest that it is potentially life threatening.
There is nothing that will get the hormones out of your body once you have had the shot, and the effects can last long after the contraceptive effects have run their course. I have heard horror stories of college students being offered Depo Provera and only being told of the positive aspects of it (which obviously sound great: lasts for three months, cheap, and no having to remember to take a pill every morning) and ending up with broken bones, aggravated anxiety disorders, and in one case, vaginosis vulvodynia — constant pain in the vaginal canal that can include burning and spasming. Ouch, right?
So the problem here for me is that doctors are offering this form of contraception to young girls who are still going through puberty, and who knows what effect a hormone injection will have at that stage of someone’s life. In addition, they’re highlighting all of the pros to this injection: your parents don’t have to know you’re using birth control, it’s long lasting, you won’t get pregnant, etc — but no where in the article do I see a mention of the potential side effects or the fact that the “shot” has been taken out of numerous countries’ family planning protocols and had it’s safety heavily debated, or that “implant” version of birth control has been banned in the United States.
On a related note, it is also concerning that the only reason people are quoted as having a problem with offering this type of contraception to thirteen year old girls is that it will encourage promiscuity and sexual activity. This is an age-old argument that is incredibly naive in my opinion. Really, people should be arguing against suggesting these types of birth control because of the awful side effects they can, and most of the time do, have.
Which brings me to a very important point that is close to my heart: we need more comprehensive sex education in our world. I think that it is important for girls and women, no matter what they’re age, be it thirteen or thirty-five, to be able to make choices about what contraceptive method they use. However, if they have no idea what negative aspects birth control methods such as the shot have, how can they make the right choice? If a young woman has not been taught about different methods of birth control and contraception, they might jump at the first thing offered to them — like the shot, coils, and implants these doctors are suggesting.
So I say okay to providing access to contraception to younger girls, but only if we’re going to give them the education that they deserve to go with it.
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I started BC pills at 13 due to a medical condition, I switched dozens of times as they would simply stop working (how scary is that) or I had some terrible side effect. I moved away from home and got a new gyno and he looked at my problem and the fact that I had terrible migraines and prescribed nuvaring, it has been the best BC I could ever wish for, I have no side effects and it helped my migraines immensely. I would strongly recommend people at least give it a try and see how they react. Also kiddos who need/want to hide your birth control from your parents, unless they commonly check inside your cooch they aren’t going to find the nuvaring.
Hey, I’m going in to see a gynecologist about my BC-induced migraines next week. I’ll make sure to ask about nuvaring. I think I need either a super-low hormone dose or a non-hormonal birth control to get rid of my migraines; otherwise the hormones seem to build up in my system and just screw with my head.
I initially started taking birth control because I have monster periods without hormone regulation. I’m kind of dreading having to stop taking regular birth control. Back to monster cramps and week-long periods for me.
Okay.
There’s a difference between not offering birth control to grown women because you’re worried they’ll turn into hussies, and not offering long-term birth control to young CHILDREN because it promotes promiscuity. Women have the maturity level to handle the consequences of sex. They know the risks. They know that birth control isn’t a get out of jail free card. Children, on the other hand, see this as “So I can’t get pregnant? Great!”
I do some moonlighting on an advice website. The number of teenage girls who think that because they’re on the pill/whatever they are okay to have sex with whomever they want, wherever and whenever they want is frightening and astounding. Then we get the questions “Am I a slut? I’m 13 and have had sex with 7 guys” or “I have some sore bumps on my crotch, but I had sex in a hot tub so it can’t be herpes. This is just pimples, right?”
If you want to make this stuff available to children, you need to be teaching them more than just what is going into their bodies, what it does and what its limitations are. You can’t toss Depo at them on one hand but stick them in abstinence-only education on the other.
They need to be learning about ALL aspects of sexuality, not just “how NOT to make a baby” and “what your birth control does to you”. They need to learn about the emotional aspects of beginning a sexual relationship, STIs, how to decide if you’re ready, how to say no to hormones/your boyfriend. They need to learn more than the clinical “this is what sex is”. They need to know that you can’t use shampoo instead of spermicidal lube, that you shouldn’t have sex in a hot tub, that just because he wants to have sex with you doesn’t mean that he loves you or respects you, that anal sex puts you at greater risk for STI transmission and that you can’t trust someone else with your sexual health.
I’ve been working with these kids for years, and the questions keep pouring in. 14 year old pregnant girls, 16 year olds with herpes, girls who are having sex before they get their periods and want to know if they can take birth control. Girls who are heartbroken because they sent a boy a picture of themselves naked and that boy sent it to everyone they know. Girls who measure their value and self-worth by their sexuality.
The problems run deep. Start treating them, and we might see a decrease in the number of young teens who need access to contraceptives.
Yes! This, word for word!
Kids can be so stupid and misinformed about sex, it’s absolutely infuriating. No, having sex upside down hanging from a bur oak tree (not a pin oak, a bur oak) whilst wiggling your left thumb will NOT prevent you from getting pregnant! I do honestly wish schools would address this, or at least offer an optional sex ed class like the drivers ed classes available through most high schools.
Here here! My thoughts exactly, Manda- you can’t just throw contraceptives at preteens and teenagers and expect them to know the rest. You don’t just stick someone in a car and tell them to buckle their seatbelt and go off into the world.
Erin- I wish schools would address this too- if we have optional drivers ed, we should have sex ed! It is so important for preteens and teenagers to get holistic sex education in which they learn not only the “basic” facts about pregnancy and STIs and periods, but about the feelings and emotional aspects of sexuality, the meaning of consent, and and a whole cornucopia of other things that are currently being left out. I’m glad there are other people in the world who think that middle/high school sex ed needs major revamping!!!!
My daughter was put on birth control at 13 because her cycle was so screwed up. We explained it to her and she was a virgin until 18.
That’s an entirely different kettle of fish. What you’re talking about is contraceptives as hormone therapy, not contraceptives as contraceptives.
[...] in the article I wrote about long term contraceptives, I’ll say again: that all sounds awesome. A cost effective way to end an unwanted pregnancy [...]