Welcome

Talking to your teenager about contraception

By Giulia Draycott

Click star to rate:

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• (244 ratings)

 

0 comments

Getting the message across

Perhaps one of the most important and fundamental points to get across is that each person is individually responsible for contraception. Teenagers can be scarily mature in some respects, while in others they remain as childish and self-centred as when they were eight.

"It was his job to wear the condom, it's not my fault" is one of those arguments you just don't want to be having with your sulky teenage girl. Conversely, hearing your teenage son declare, "Well it's not me who gets pregnant, so it's not my problem," is enough to strike a chill into any parent's heart.

Types of contraception to discuss

A second and equally important point is to explain to your teenager the difference between contraception that's effective in preventing pregnancies and contraception that protects against sexually transmitted diseases.

A hormonal contraceptive may be the safest method of protecting a teenage girl against pregnancy⁶. But a condom is the only contraceptive considered highly effective in reducing the risk of STDs such as Chlamydia and HPV (which can cause genital warts and cervical cancer) as well as Herpes, Gonorrhoea, Syphilis, Hepatitis and HIV⁷.

It's also worth suggesting (perhaps with a bit of humour) a 'belts and braces' approach to your teenager's contraception i.e. the male using a condom to protect against STDs and the female using a hormonal contraceptive (a pill, injection, patch or implant).

Being realistic about risks

While it may seem over cautious, it's worth remembering that the male condom is considered to be about 98 percent effective when used perfectly correctly⁶. But how many novice condom users are likely to achieve 'perfect use'?

According to the Pearl Index, which reports the effectiveness of birth control methods, 'typical use' of a condom has only an 85 percent success rate in preventing pregnancy in the first year of use⁶. Suddenly it doesn't seem so silly suggesting that both partners take precautions after all...

continue...