I can only answer based on what I see on EmpowHER, but the questions we get from teenage girls (and sometimes twentysomethings as well) are often troubling. Just the number of them who don't know how they will and won't get pregnant are astonishing. They are filled with angst and misinformation that they've gotten from their friends. Many times, the first thing we need to do with one of these girls is to calm them down; the second thing is to correct the bad information they've gotten.
We've had questions from girls who've missed three periods and wonder if they're pregnant; we've also had questions from girls who had oral sex only and wonder if they could be pregnant. Or whether they can get pregnant if both they and their partner are fully clothed. Or wonder if they should be using some form of birth control because they've beens sexually active for months.
I can only surmise that these girls are NOT getting the right information anywhere -- neither home nor school. Aside from the moral arguments for and against abstinence and sex education, it just seems to me that there's a lot less practical information out there for adolescents and young adults than there used to be. And that just can't be a good thing.
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Pat,
I can only answer based on what I see on EmpowHER, but the questions we get from teenage girls (and sometimes twentysomethings as well) are often troubling. Just the number of them who don't know how they will and won't get pregnant are astonishing. They are filled with angst and misinformation that they've gotten from their friends. Many times, the first thing we need to do with one of these girls is to calm them down; the second thing is to correct the bad information they've gotten.
We've had questions from girls who've missed three periods and wonder if they're pregnant; we've also had questions from girls who had oral sex only and wonder if they could be pregnant. Or whether they can get pregnant if both they and their partner are fully clothed. Or wonder if they should be using some form of birth control because they've beens sexually active for months.
I can only surmise that these girls are NOT getting the right information anywhere -- neither home nor school. Aside from the moral arguments for and against abstinence and sex education, it just seems to me that there's a lot less practical information out there for adolescents and young adults than there used to be. And that just can't be a good thing.
January 28, 2010 - 8:42amThis Comment
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