I stumbled across this blurb of health news as I was eating my raisin bran this morning:
Considering the number of children I come across who are forced to bear the burden of being raised by completely incompetent parents, I appreciate the lowered restrictions on access to birth control and the morning-after pill. I think it's great that women have a backup plan if their chosen method of birth control fails. But I'm troubled by the National Center for Health Statistics study that indicates that 49% of women who have used the morning-after pill reported using after unprotected sex. I would think that the fact that it is actually called PlanB would help clue in sexually active women that perhaps they should have a plan A in place before hooking up with guys that they would rather not procreate with.
With those thoughts still running through my mind, I moved on to my second bit of health news for the day:
Well, no kidding. If you're hopping around looking for some action and don't already have an action plan in place to prevent pregnancy, obviously you don't have a plan A for STD prevention either. And you know what plan B is for those? An invigorating round of antibiotics.
No big deal, you say? Then have a wander over here:
That's right, peeps. In some cases, it appears that there is no plan B. Yikes.
I think it's alarming that, in a developed country like the US where casual sex has become so accepted since the advent of birth control, there is such a lack of knowledge of how safe sex actually works. So let me put on my white coat so I can dole out some friendly pharmacist advice:
- If you're a chick and you're planning on hooking up with random guys, get yourself on some routine contraceptives beforehand. Use PlanB as your backup, not your only method of birth control.
- Once you're on those contraceptives, unless you see a lab report saying they're absolutely disease free, you still need to use a condom with those random guys. It's the only thing (besides abstinence) that is going to have a chance of stopping the spread of STDs.
- To the guys, sure, you're not going to get pregnant. I guess if you do knock some chick up and don't mind being a dead-beat dad, you can pretend nothing ever happened. But before you forget or "forget" to use a condom, just remember: the STD train goes both ways.
- In case I wasn't clear enough, condoms are cheaper than both babies and treatments for STDs. They're also easier to obtain than the alcohol that is responsible for many of those babies and STDs.
I think it's a little strange that no one at NBCNews decided to have an
original thought and combine the information from all three articles into
something that could help educate a public that seems woefully uniformed. I can't be the only person who recognized that the above topics are all related. I know it is part of my job to educate my patients about contraception and STDs, but it seems that for a large number of women, the pharmacist can only counsel about birth control after the fact. Because sex education seems to be neglected in some states, I think the media has an opportunity to help educate the public rather than just report. I'm tired of reading articles like the one above concerning the STD epidemic, that explain studies but give no causes or solutions for the situation. Would it have been so difficult for the journalist to mention that practicing safe sex would lower the risk of contracting an STD? Even if he isn't capable of independent thought, there are tons of doctors that he could have approached for a quote.
Okay, the white coat is off and Doctor Sarah, advocate for the improvement of society through better education, has vanished. As the off-duty Sarah Jane, I have to be honest and admit that, despite the seriousness of our country's ignorance of how diseases spread and what family planning requires to be effective, I find the combination of these articles showing up for me to enjoy on Valentine's Day kind of funny. It's the little things that I appreciate the most.
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| Image courtesy of gubgib / FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
Hope you have a happy (and STD-free) Valentine's Day!!!
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