How I learned to stop worrying and love my hormones!

[ageofscience]

As I've mentioned, I'm working on a conference paper proposal on the use of oral contraceptives for menstrual suppression. Although paper is less about oral contraceptives themselves and more about why the idea of menstrual suppression is really messed up, in doing my research I've learned an awful lot about that little thing we call The Pill

Comments

[queencallipygos]

I agree with you that it is a highly, highly individual decision. I did go on the pill for a while, and while I appreciated less-acne as a side effect (I've had cystic acne in the past as well), I didn't appreciate the moodiness. Then again, though, the guy I was seeing at the time I was taking the pill was an ass, so he could have been more so to blame for the moodiness anyway

[ageofscience]

Hello! This was a wonderful response, thank you for writing it! Also, I totally giggled at the guy I was seeing at the time I was taking the pill was an ass, so he could have been more so to blame for the moodiness anyway. Hehehe. How often that is the case

[queencallipygos]

It also baffles my mind that most women seem to be stuck on the idea that condoms and the pill are the only two forms of contraception that exist. I think, "did you not have sex ed class in the seventh grade? What the hell?".

I read your praise of Halifax public schooling, and should probably point out a very good explanation for why people might be misinformed about contraception:

I live in the U.S. You were required to take a "health" class, but if you wanted to take the version that included lessons on sexual health you had to get permission from your parents. If you didn't, you were stuck with learning about the 4 food groups and hygiene.

[ageofscience]

Grrr. The politics of sex education is kind of one of the most infuriating things about the world today! I can't believe how different so many people's experience is from my own. We started learning about how the deed was done in the fourth grade! I think there might have been parental consent forms for the first year or two (except they had to give the sheet back if they DIDN'T want you to attend, rather than the other way around), but after that it was kind of like, "If parents don't like it, tough".

To think that kids are stuck learning about food groups when I was in a jr. high health class where people were asking, "can I use a diaphragm and condoms at the same time?' and the always adorable, "can a girl get pregnant from oral sex with a boy?" is really depressing to me! And then to also remember that not only is abstinence-only education is so pervasive, but abortion is almost NEVER discussed as an option, is kind of crazy to me.

[athoos]

"did you not have sex ed class in the seventh grade? What the hell?".

that is so funny. i have asked that question to soooooo many people, because i got decent sex-ed in grade 7 and 8. i long ago stopped being shocked when most people answer "no, i've never had sex-ed." but i am still dismayed by this fact! why is it that when the scare of AIDS/HIV was first catapulted into the media, that suddenly it became desperate for tweens to get sex-education, but now that HIV is more treatable/chronic than terminal, it's all hush-hush conservative-don't-teach-kids-about-sex attitude all over again?! [or am i being naive and narrow in my rationale?]

[ageofscience]

In some ways I feel like my school (or at least, the immersion program in my school) was kind of a lucky anomaly. I think our teachers thought it was important we get educated on the issue in our first language, but didn't want to break the "NO ENGLISH IN CLASS!" rules, so they were inclined to have guest speakers. This worked out really well, a) because we didn't know the guest speaker so we weren't afraid to ask them stuff we wouldn't ask our teacher. b) they didn't know us, so they weren't worried about upholding a Good and Proper image in front of us (I definitely remember one lady who worked in an emergency room talking to us about a girl coming in to the ER with some vegetable inside her- you don't hear that stuff from teachers!) and c) they obviously know a lot more than your garden-variety 8th grade health teacher, anyway

[athoos]

sounds like you and i had very similar experiences in this area. i also attended a french immersion school for grades 6-8, and though i didn't stay in the immersion program past grade 6 [because i went into the enrichment program], i distinctly recall that we would have health classes specifically devoted to sex-education, and a "guest" speaker [usually one of the phys-ed teachers, but at least it wasn't our homeroom teacher] would talk to the class, and answer any questions in english. i recall the condom-on-the-banana demonstration, and i recall him bringing in examples of gyneocological equipment. he also talked about different contraceptive / STD-prevention options. overall, i thought my class treated the whole thing really maturely and respectfully. i don't understand the parental attitude that these facts of life should be hidden from kids who are beginning to experience puberty, and trying to understand their changing bodies and emotions.

[ageofscience]

Did the English kids in your school also have the guest speakers? I know ours did on occasion, but I think it was maybe once or twice instead of a few times a year. They were always so envious of our sex-ed classes!

Gynecological equipment, though, that's one road we didn't go down! Heh.

[sakuramochii]

texas cities (most of them) have a pretty straightforward sex-ed policy: abstinence only. it is utter BULLSHIT.
i'm glad i went to a more liberal school that at least taught us about safe sex... but that was only condoms, dental dams, and pictures of gonorrhea gone really, really bad on someone's penis/vagina/anus.
when i finally got to college (after educating myself through the internet about other methods of bc) my RA in the dorm got someone to explain the rest of the bc methods like the ring, the patch, the female condom, etc. this is one reason i'm glad i ended up in austin.. it's the only liberal county in the entire state.

[ageofscience]

Austin sounds like a really great city. I'm glad you ended up there too :)

I remember in the 8th grade we each got a colour chart with little pictures of all the various STIs and details about each one. Later in the afternoon the same day we had to watch a video that (and I have no idea how they did this) was taken from inside a woman's v, so you could see the penis going in and ejaculating and we were all like EW BARF! SICKEST THING EVER I'M NEVER DOING THAT! GROSS! To that health teacher's credit though, we also learned about homo sex in his class. And we all thought it was hilarious / stupid at the time, but in retrospect? That was some progressive stuff! Thank you, M. Doiron, wherever you are!

The ring and the patch seem so fandangled and new and scary to me! Eeep!

[blackacre]

You know, I honestly can't remember if I had sex ed in high school or not. Granted, it was 10+ years ago but I think that says something.

I can remember clearly that it was not covered in 7th grade health, and perhaps it was glazed over in my 10th grade health class...but other than that, these were option classes you could take in place of study halls.

But what is more disturbing is that in about 1990 my high school started offering a day care center. For students. And if you wanted to learn about child care, you could take classes where you got to go in and help the aides/moms take care of their kids. I actually remember a girl coming into my study hall asking to see if anyone wanted to join the class, and she encouraged boys to join because "they'll be fathers too someday."

Imagine this - no sex ed, but parenting classes. And plenty of options for girls that actually had their kids in high school (and hell, i recall some girls PLANNING pregnancies like, junior year.)

Just a thought.

[ageofscience]

I don't think the day care is necessarily a bad thing, if girls are going to have babies anyway. It's unfortunate that they're making that decision at such a young age, but I guess I'd rather them be able to still graduate high school and get an education so the baby thing won't *totally* destroy their lives, you know? I went to a small school and there were very few pregnancies, so it's not something we really had to deal with, I guess.

We had sex ed from grades 4-9. They stopped in high school both because health class was no longer mandatory, and also because by the age of 15/16, we didn't want to really hear our old, disgusting (heh) teachers talking to us about it when we knew a lot anyway.

Planning pregnancies at such a young age though is just... sad. I know that sounds judgmental, but I don't know a single person who had babies before 18 and didn't really, really regret it later on. My mum is 49 years old now, and she still regrets it!

[allscrapedup]

I met a girl my age recently who:
-works at planned parenthood
-volunteers at planned parenthood
-is a registered nurse
-has her own home and car
-had a kid when she was 14

This was so opposite from my stereotype of a "teen mom" that I basically can never be so judgmental again! Her life is 100 times more together than mine and she has an eight year old son!

[ageofscience]

I only wish that were the case more than like, 1% of the time

[allscrapedup]

Yeah, I totally agree with what you're saying but I guess I was just pointing out the dangers of assuming that ALL teenage parents are sad about or regret or resent having a child. I definitely almost put my foot in my mouth a bunch of times during a conference because I kept almost generalizing teenage moms into one category laden with my own stereotypes, when that can be reallllly offensive to some people (who have been there, had a child at a young age and did NOT wish things had happened differently).

But yes, I do agree that teen parents definitely need lots and lots of support! Support that is usually not there for the most part..

[blackacre]

I definetly think the day care was a good thing. What I didn't think was good was the fact that there was no sex ed unless you were one of those few that happened to have kids! It was just backwards.

Oy.