- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Austin Babies
At what age would you discuss birth control with a girl?
DH ran a call the other night for a girl who was 13 or 14 years old. Since she is a young woman, he has to ask her when her last cycle was and if she is on any kind of birth control or if she could possibly be pregnant. The girl looked at him totally confused and said she doesn't know what birth control is.
I remember learning about birth control and sex way before I was ever thinking about it, so I thought for her not to have any idea was odd.
When would you discuss these topics with your daughter? Or son since they need to know what is up as well. Would you wait for them to ask you first or do you think there is an appropriate age to bring it up?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: At what age would you discuss birth control with a girl?
If my daughter is getting her period, she can get pregnant and needs to know about birth control.
I think the sex talk comes earlier, but I can see holding out on birth control until she starts menstruating...
52 Choices For Better Health
This for the most yes, but I started my period at 9. I didn't even know what the heck was going on. If my daughter starts her period at 9, I'll probably wait until 12 or 13 to put her on birth control. And yes I will put her on birth control before high school. I teach freshman and I have 3 students that got pregnant when they were in middle school. One actually AT middle school.
I could live in a world where my daughter doesn't have sex, but I think nowadays that is just being naive.
She has pregnancies in her middle school. She has friends who have had sex.
Fortunately, she has yet to even kiss a boy. (I know this is true b/c I read ALL her texts)
THANK YOU GOD! I know it is coming, but fortunately she is a snobby little sh!t and won't settle for just any boy!
note to self: make sure DD is raised to be a snobby little sh!t...
Earlier than that for sho. In the ER I encounter an unacceptable number of young women (and men) who have little to no knowledge of birth control or STD prevention.
When I first started at my current job we had a 14 year old who thought she was miscarrying. I happened to ask her about BC and it turned out she had been taking one of her mother's BCP's "every time we had sex". Her bleeding was breakthrough bleeding after taking 1-2 pills a day for 3 months. Mom had a one year supply and didn't notice the packs missing. The worst part of the whole ordeal was that she told her parents she was pregnant when she skipped her cycle and they made her MARRY the much older guy. Never even peed on a stick. Talk about the blind leading the blind. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. I got Social Work involved real quick.
On the flipside, I'm disturbed by how many girls as young as 13 are completely shaved down there. I'll not even get into the elementary aged girls who wear thong underwear. I know that there is a *right* age for anything. As the more experienced moms have pointed out, it really does depend on the kid but I certainly see a number of things where I think "that's too young".
hmmm....I could totally tap in to this with my girl.
52 Choices For Better Health
Y'all are making me blush wfrom embarassment...
she is very difficult on my end, but it does keep her outta trouble elsewhere.
OMG, these stories are making me want to get me tubes tied.
xo,
girl who had sex-ed around 5th-6th grade but was very, very prudish until much later.
Hell, my cousin's 23 year old girlfriend just got pregnant and had an abortion because she didn't want to get fat on birth control. Her period was 3 weeks late, and my cousin (the guy!) had to tell her to take a pregnancy test. Her response, "Really? You think I could be pregnant?"
There's no age limit for ignorance and stupidity.
this needs to be put on a t-shirt.
52 Choices For Better Health
exsqueezeme???????
Technically the last one I saw was a g-string. I have no idea where you find them that small. Does VS do extra extra small? I know the Limited Too (before it became Justice) got dumped on by the media for marketing them but they're no longer on the website. I suppose you're never too young to worry about pantylines.
*I* will be their birth control! I plan on sitting on their backs like a monkey each time they go out with a little boy!
HA!
J/K My mom told me about birth control before I got my period but after sex ed at school...so that was about 9(?). She said that when I was ready to become sexually active, that we were going to the gyn's office and the doctor was gonna look in my cooch (pap smear). I don't know why, but that scared me (nightmares of her saying we were going to Disneyland but really ended up going to the doctor) for a loooooong time. I didn't want anyone to do that. In fact, I was 18 before I had my first kiss. heh.
This!
I had to stop reading for a second because I was laughing so hard over y'all raising your daughters to be snobby little sh!ts!
And WHAT in a thong? WTH? And ... is there actually a difference between a g-string and a thong? I thought they were pretty much the same thing?
I was ON birth control at either at late 13 or early 14, don't remember exactly. I had terrible, terrible periods and birth control was my friend! Lots of people criticized my mother saying I was either having sex and lying about it or this would make me start having sex. I didn't have sex until I was 17. Okay, fine, 16 but I tell people 17 cause I was really close and almost 17
. It had nothing to do with being on BC and everything to do with a really rude, pushy, mean, glad-I-dumped-him boyfriend!
I think it depends greatly on the child - when they start asking questions or showing curiosity (or if they don't, a parent should find a time to bring it up sometime before they are a teenager!). Also, I think a lot of it should be gradual. The BC talk doesn't have to be the same talk as the Sex talk. Answer questions as honestly as is appropriate and have an open dialogue about sex and BC.
...says the non-mom who's backing out of this now ...
Word.
As for the b.c. I never had the talk with my mom...I learned from school...but I was a late bloomer...I was 19 or 20. Anyhoo. I think it has to be in middle school. I've got a girl who got preggers just out of middle school. I hear a few came over this year pregnant. I have a junior who preggers with her second child...yes, I said second. We plan on talking with DS when he is in middle school. We're not stupid...we want him to be safe, and I don't want to be a grandma early or have him "ruin" his life so soon. (I hope that doesn't offend anyone...I just think being in high school is too young to have a child...there's so much more life to live still.)
Having had a family member die of AIDS, the STD talk will be the first talk at our house.
I can forsee mentioning birth control when the sex talk comes (which will be much earlier than her getting her period, I think), but delving into the topic more seriously as she approaches her middle school years.
Yes, STDs are still a concern. But on the flipside....if you don't give them birth control, that's not going to ensure that they will use condoms. So then they end up knocked up with chlamydia.