Young teen age girls getting contraceptives without parents' knowledge

[twoheartstop 10]

I had the opposite problem.

When I was 15 my father took me to a brothel in another country (I believe it was still illegal there) because he was concerned about my lack of sexual experience (!) I even went behind the blacked windows of Soho porn shops with him.

I still feel guilty over it. My first sexual act should have been with someone I loved, but my (once severe) personality disorder, drug problems etc meant I had no luck as a spotty 15 year old with the girls and he thought action should be taken.

[Cyclone 10]

Please excuse me. I was confusing you with a caring, worried parent.

 

Are you one? or are you just being arguementative for the sake of it?

 

If you are the latter, please read the OP.

 

Thanks.

 

If by argumentative you mean asking you a few simple relevant questions and asking you to back your hyperbole up with some evidence. Then I'm doing it because the questions were relevant and your hyperbole was just that.

 

Any closer to being able to post your answers, or still to angry to explain why you thought Aids was relevant? Too angry to explain, but not too angry to try to bring in irrelevant, emotive issues to muddy the issue?

Come to think of it, I responded to your statement and basically asked for clarification, which you have since refused to give. One has to wonder what your weird agenda in being difficult is?

 

Are you being evasive for the sake of it?

[Cyclone 10]

Makes sense.

 

How would he/she feel if her daughter came home with Aids?

 

This implant offers no protection against it.

 

How would he/she feel if her daughter developed hormonal problems due to this treatment being given at such a young age?

 

Not too upset to post this, but too upset to explain.

[rainbow sky 10]

because its not illegal to have terrible period pains under 16 is it, and to be frank i really wish people would read previous posts then you would of seen that as most have said alot have the implant or start the pill for non sexual related reasons!

 

I would have thought it was obvious from my post that I was talking about them being prescribed for "contraceptive" use rather than to help any other medical condition, after all I did mention about "UNDERAGE SEX".

 

Obviously it wasn't clear enough for everyone,

[Cyclone 10]

It's clear to everyone that adolescents under 16 are having sex, so to deny them contraception would be perverse if we do want to reduce the level of teen pregnancy.

How do you think denying them contraception would work?

[Kthebean 10]

What I don't understand is If it is illegal to have sex if you are under 16, why is it not illegal for doctors to prescribe contraceptives to under 16's, whether it be with parental consent or not?

 

Apparently although it is technically illegal for two fifteen year olds to have sex, the Home Office has stated 'the law is not intended to prosecute mutually agreed teenage sexual activity between two young people of a similar age, unless it involves abuse or exploitation.'

[Plain Talker 11]

Makes sense.

 

How would he/she feel if her daughter came home with Aids?

 

This implant offers no protection against it.

 

How would he/she feel if her daughter developed hormonal problems due to this treatment being given at such a young age?

 

 

well, as I said in my earlier post, this is why our teens should be sufficiently "genned-up" on things like HIV (note, someone will not "come home with AIDS":- they may, however - God forbid - contract HIV, which is the virus that can lead to AIDS, if they have unsafe sex or exchange bodily fluids, such as in needle sharing...

 

so whilst we explain to them how beneficial the pill and the implant can be in preventing an unwanted pregnancy, or regulating hormones to deal with Acne or painful/ heavy periods, we also need to emphasise a belt-and-braces approach where we explain that if you are going to have sex, then to protect yourself from STI's and HIV, you need to use a condom as well as the pill.

 

 

What I don't understand is If it is illegal to have sex if you are under 16, why is it not illegal for doctors to prescribe contraceptives to under 16's, whether it be with parental consent or not?

 

Because being illegal doesn't magically stop it happening.

 

Stealing is illegal. That does not mean we don't need courts, or gaols to deal with those who steal.

 

I don't think many of us would actually be rejoicing at our teenager having sex under-age. However, denying them the means to protect themselves against pregnancies, and STI's, IMO is more wrong.

 

Short of caging them up, in chastity belts, we can't physically prevent them from having sex should they be that determined to do so. (and, of course, we'd merely breed a generation of expert lock-pickers!!!!)

 

What we can do is, by proper education, give them the tools and the self-confidence to say "no", and the means to say "yes" safely. (as well as the information about where to get the protection from)

 

I think we should be pleased that our teen has the common sense to get contraception, rather than risking an unwanted pregnancy.

 

I know many teens, and as many parents who are "Squicked-out" at the idea of the other generation having a sex-life. but as the band "la Tour" said...

 

"People Are Still Having Sex!"

[rainbow sky 10]

It's clear to everyone that adolescents under 16 are having sex, so to deny them contraception would be perverse if we do want to reduce the level of teen pregnancy.

How do you think denying them contraception would work?

 

 

I never said we should deny under 16's contraceptives, I just meant I don't think a doctor should be allowed to prescribe them to under age kids without parental consent.

 

I would much rather have my child come to me and tell me they were considering entering into a sexual relationship and I take them to doctors, than they go on there own, after all there are many different types of contraception and I would want to make sure my child chose the correct one for them.

 

I am not stupid I know many kids are having sex well before 16, I think a lot of it is about how much information a child gets, and I feel a lot of responsibility is on parents, I myself would never have been able to discuss anything to do with sex with my parents, they were just not approachable like that, which is why I have been very open with my son (13), he knows he can come to me and ask anything, he is currently going through puberty and I regularly have discussions with him about various aspects about it.

[medusa 16]

I would have thought it was obvious from my post that I was talking about them being prescribed for "contraceptive" use rather than to help any other medical condition, after all I did mention about "UNDERAGE SEX".

 

Obviously it wasn't clear enough for everyone,

 

But there would be no difference in prescription. These implants were developed as contraceptives and fall under the NHS guidelines for contraceptives, which mean that they are free at the point of delivery even for people who pay for their prescriptions.

 

The other advantageous side effects are just that- side effects. The same has applied to those who were prescribed the pill for painful periods or acne throughout the years.

[Cyclone 10]

I never said we should deny under 16's contraceptives, I just meant I don't think a doctor should be allowed to prescribe them to under age kids without parental consent.

So you would allow for them to be denied, by parents.

 

I would much rather have my child come to me and tell me they were considering entering into a sexual relationship and I take them to doctors, than they go on there own, after all there are many different types of contraception and I would want to make sure my child chose the correct one for them.

The fact that 'you would rather' does not in any way consider all the various possibilities does it.

 

I am not stupid I know many kids are having sex well before 16, I think a lot of it is about how much information a child gets, and I feel a lot of responsibility is on parents, I myself would never have been able to discuss anything to do with sex with my parents, they were just not approachable like that, which is why I have been very open with my son (13), he knows he can come to me and ask anything, he is currently going through puberty and I regularly have discussions with him about various aspects about it.

Not all parents are good ones though, we can't pass legislation on the basis of just your relationship with your son.

[Plain Talker 11]

I do get where you're coming from Rainbow Sky, but with legislation like that, how would the teens go on who DON'T have approachable parents? The teens who know that the parent/ parents would utterly batter them if they so much as broached the subject?

 

There was no way on God's green earth, that I could talk to my mother, and especially my father about such matters. (even now my Poppa is not approachable on that subject.)

 

MY mother's take on the subject I've outlined previously:- "Terrify your kid into keeping chaste...!"

 

I don't know where my mum's mindset came from, but, bless her, she considered sex a "chore", to be "endured". In her opinion, it was "dirty", and not at all topic for , she believed conversation, polite or otherwise. At risk of taking this topic into the vulgar, she even believed that tampax was only for *cough* married women...

 

Sadly my mother didn't live long enough for us to see whether she would have mellowed as she aged. Maybe as one of the earliest of the first generation to really have fewer worries about falling pregnant "out of wedlock", she was scared that we daughters faced the same risks..? I don't know. But I vowed I would not be such a prude, and that I'd be open about the matter, when I was an adult.

[Evei 10]

I don't think it is normal for teenagers to tell parents everything about what they get up to. My parents discussed sex over the dinner table numerous times I remember one conversation over the dining table that ended up being a 'discussion' between my parents over their views on underage sex: which I think was totally for me and my sisters benefit, each of them taking opposing views At least they tried and it was appreciated as it make me think. As an adult you don’t tell everyone about your sex life, which is perfectly normal, and I think you have to accept that neither will a son/ daughter, I would not expect them to either, but you would be there if they had a hypothetical question

 

I find it so sad that sex education in this country is still very much a handful one off lessons dotted throughout primary and secondary education and does not focus as much as I think it should on relationships and emotions as well as sex. It’s even sadder that it is very clear that some children have not already been spoken to about relationships and sex from their parents and are completely clueless, coming out with the same misconceptions over and over again. The only adult conversations they have about sex, contraception and most importantly relationships are in a school classroom.

 

It is very scary that HIV is rarely mentioned in public anymore, though other treatable sexual transmitted diseases are very much in the limelight. When I was a teenager in the early 90’s there was very public and quite scary ongoing campaigns that told you what to do to avoid getting HIV. It made you stop and think. I do teach about HIV when looking at viruses and mutations as part of a course and it is amazing to see how many bright 17 year olds think it is curable