Naturally, you get what you deserve when you peruse the Daily Mail, but in this case my attention was drawn to this particular article by a tweet. Said Tweet came from Dr. Petra Boynton, a sex educator who’s well worth following.
The Mail has sensationally reported that around a 1,000 girls of 11-12 years old are being prescribed the Pill, “usually without their parents knowledge”. How they know the latter is a bit of a mystery; my mum didn’t always come with me on appointments, but knew exactly what I was doing. But what’s really worrying is the complete lack of information about why the Pill is being prescribed.
To give my own anecdotal example, I was on the Pill a number of years before I was sexually active because I had Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). Given that the Pill stops you ovulating, this both suspended the creation of more mini cysts and made my periods regular, lighter and less uncomfortable. It worked too – many years later I was able to get pregnant without a hitch in part because my condition hadn’t been allowed to deteriorate.
I wasn’t the only person I knew to be taking the Pill for reasons like this: my sister had periods that could cause her near debilitating pain and several friends had early, burgeoning acne that was helped by Dianette and similar pills. The Centre for Young Women’s Health lists many other conditions that the Pill might be used to manage.
That hasn’t really changed. Of course, when you pick up your prescription, you tick off the box that says ‘contraceptive’, because it is. (And in many cases, I suspect, because it’s free that way). But that doesn’t mean you’re using it as one, or that you’re going to become sexually active faster just because you’re taking it. I never would have considered the Pill to be the be-all and end-all of contraception anyway, as it doesn’t prevent sexually transmitted infections; that’s something I learned from the sex education that sensationalists like the Daily Mail and it’s strident commenters want to ban.
Of course, even if some of these 11 and 12 year olds are having sex, they will at least be preventing themselves from having children at an exceptionally young age. But I remain unconvinced – not just based on my own observation which must be limited, but by the explanations of far more informed sex educators – that this is the case for the majority.
Dr. Boynton is now trying to urge a number of publications and organisations to set the record straight and reduce the misinformed scaremongering articles like this cause. If you’re a GP, nurse or other medical professional, or if you work for any sort of medical body, please take whatever steps you can to help reduce misinformation in the media.