White, Jerilyn: Teens and Contraception

                  Sexually active teens are often not appropriately informed about sexual health. Therefore, they may make erroneous sexual decisions. Dawson and Bankhead clearly conveyed this message in their articles. Parents of teens are usually comfortable with providing their teen daughters with contraceptives, especially short-term ones such as birth control pills, the shot, the patch, and condoms. Some would say that such contraceptive methods are beneficial and practical, but they are not effective. Studies show that teens who use short-term contraceptive are more likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases and infections, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and unplanned pregnancies. So why not use long-term reversible contraceptives? Although long-term reversible contraceptive methods (for example; inter uterine devices [IUDs]) are more effective, many teens and parents of teens believe that they bring up issues such as confidentiality, price, and safety. Only 4.5% of teens use long-term reversible contraceptives. The authors seem concerned about how misinformed parents and teens are. Teens may not know about the effect of their choices of contraceptives because they are not properly informed. Parents play a vital role in informing their teen children about sexual health. If teens are provided with wrong information they may make the wrong decisions. Also, if parents are educated in sexual health they can make their teens feel more comfortable. Comfort t is also important when making decisions about this sensitive subject. Parents and teen stray from long-term reversible contraceptive because of past stories about the Dalkon Shield. If more parents get involved in their teen’s sexual lives by teaching them about contraceptives, taking them to sexual education classes and clinics, then pregnancy and sexual transmitted diseases among teens will certainly decrease and the use of long-term reversible contraceptives might just increase.