Contraceptives

Calling anyone who parents or educates young people.

Are you comfortable having a healthy conversation with a teenage girl about flavoured condoms? Would you avoid such a discussion at all costs, after all, it’s a guy thing, right? Do you think someone else should talk to her about ‘these things’ or do you believe the subject of birth control should be taboo until she ‘grows up’?

Like it or not, young people ARE having sex and many of them do not have access to the information THEY NEED that will help them to plan their own futures and the welfare of their future families. Of course, sex education will raise many more discussion topics apart from flavoured condoms but if we are to follow through with  our duty of care towards our young people then  we must be prepared to face topics that may be outside our own ‘comfort’ zone.  The quote from Philip Harvey below is to encourage you to see the ‘ big picture’ and to step forwards rather than backwards with the sexual health education of the young people who may look to you for advice.

In my light hearted post on November 5th I mentioned a non profit organisation called DKL International who supply coffee flavoured condoms to Ethiopia. The philanthropist behind this organisation is Philip Harvey who runs Adam and Eve, the largest on-line store of adult merchandise in the United States. Philip’s company now gives away 25% of its profits to good causes and provides 10% of DKI’s total funding.
Why am I mentioning Philip?

Because he is making a difference- all over the world in the arena of birth control, especially in countries where access to contraception is limited.  We don’t need Philip’s funds to make a difference though, we can do it with our own attitude to educating young people about birth control and protecting themselves from sexually transmitted infections.

This is what Philip has to say about a woman’s right to control her fertility :
“My feeling about birth control is that it has an immediate and enormous humanitarian impact for the people who get access to contraception. It has a dramatic impact on infant mortality, it has a marked impact on maternal mortality and it certainly has an impact on family welfare. The ability to control ones fertility, especially for women, is a form of liberation, that I think in and of itself is very important. And in thirty five years of doing this I have never seen a down side.”
How fortunate are we to live in a country where we have so much contraception assistance ‘on tap’, yet teen pregnancy and STI’s stats are alarming?  How fortunate are we that we have inspired teachers and health care providers working tirelessly to improve sex education programmes yet thousands of teenagers in the Western world are still left ’stranded’  from knowledge, unable to separate myth from fact when it comes to sex?
WE ALL need to do MUCH more to liberate our young people and to provide them with a thorough education in all aspects of sexual health. We owe humanity that.
PS. If you need stocking fillers this Christmas for any sexually active young people you know, there are great condom bargains to be found HERE  …and who knows, you may just find a few fun items for another favourite person in your life too?

PPS. It goes without saying that you talk to young guys about using condoms too. Watch this first video on STIs- Chlamydia is the most common STI among teens.