Thanks, 2013!

#ThxBirthControl

Today is The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy’s #ThxBirthControl day! So what does that mean?  According to a recent survey, 55 percent of sexually active women ages 18-22 would be more comfortable using birth control if more people talked about it in a positive way. So today The National Campaign is asking everyone to post messages on their social media accounts using the hashtag #ThxBirthControl.

The ability to plan when they want to have a family has helped so many awesome women I know succeed and reach their goals. I know doctors, lawyers, marketers, singer/songwriters, mothers, bankers, and engineers who are out there living their dreams.

Check out the SC Campaign's video here!

Need some help coming up with your tweets and posts? We've got your covered! Share these!

SC teen birth rates decreased 47% in the last 20 years. Thanks abstinence and #thxbirthcontrol. @sccampaign @thenc http://bit.ly/c0ePQp

95% of South Carolinians want more efforts to reduce teen pregnancy. Let's all say #thxbirthcontrol. @sccampaign http://bit.ly/c0ePQp

Teen birth rates have reached an all time low in South Carolina. Thanks abstinence and #thxbirthcontrol. @sccampaign http://bit.ly/c0ePQp

Progress made in reducing teen pregnancy saves SC taxpayers about $127 million per year. #thxbirthcontrol @sccampaign http://bit.ly/1i5cPC6

78% of South Carolinians agree making contraception available will help reduce rates of teen pregnancy.  #thxbirthcontrol @sccampaign @thenc

84% of SC residents think school based sex ed should include abstinence AND contraception.  #thnxbirthcontrol http://bit.ly/1j1BepW

So say it with us: Thanks, Birth Control! #ThxBirthControl. 

by Kylee Perez, Communications Specialist, SC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. 

Sports and Safe Sex...

As most Americans are doing these days, I try to avoid Olympic results on Facebook and Twitter so I can watch the games at night without already knowing the outcome. I am exhausted from staying up late, but it's worth it to watch Michael Phelps become the most decorated Olympian ever and to watch the Fab 5 (USA women’s gymnastics team) take gold in the team competition. What I have also loved about this year’s games are the commercials. P&G has done a great job of showing what it is like to be an athlete’s mom, Nike has shown us that there is greatness in us all, and Visa has portrayed some of the best Olympic moments – with the soothing sounds of Morgan Freeman as voiceover, of course. But, one advertisement you may not have seen, is a billboard that Durex condoms put up in London this month. The famous Olympic rings are condoms and the words are simple, “Usain, not every man wants to be the fastest in the world.” How true that is.

Durex serves as the official condom distributor of the Olympics, providing 150,000 to the Olympic village alone. Yes, you read that number right…150,000. Apparently, more happens at the Olympics than tumbling, swimming and fencing! At least we know safe sex is a priority.

What’s been your favorite commercial of the games?

 

by Cayci Banks, Director of Communications, SC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy

Teen Prom Decision Challenged by Uninformed!

Told ya'!

I like to believe I am an average (slightly neurotic), informed citizen in these United States.  I read the news, I watch CNN, and I talk to other informed friends about world happenings.  I thus, understand a few things as more true than others, 1) The North seems slightly less conservative than the South on many issues, 2) there is a current insurgence in media coverage of reproductive rights, and 3) I could never be a news anchor and not crack up constantly.  Seriously, anyone out there who knows me, do you see me on the news...without giggling?  “Tonight on News at 7, Federal Agents Raid Gun Shop, Find Weapons”  (That, by the way, folks, is a true headline used in the news…found weapons…at a gun shop-well call me shocked!)

Anyway, with the following things above being mostly true, in my opinion (maybe minus the last one), it struck me when I passed an article the other day, in the Huffington Post, about a New York school that was changing its mind about handing out condoms at the prom.  You read that last part correctly-“changing their minds”, meaning prior to the “changing”, a school had decided TO provide condoms at the prom.  There was some vitriol responses from SOME parents and community members about the schools decision to provide condoms at the prom, with some stating it gave the teens “permission” to go and have sex after the prom. 

There are statistics that tell us in high school, around 46% of teens report having had sexual intercourse (at least once)-with more than 1/3 of all high school students reported being sexually active.   Nearly half (49%) of all high school 12^th graders (READ:  PROM GOERS) reported being sexually active compared to (21%) of high school 9^th graders.  So what does this data mean in relation to this report? 

More than streamers, folks!

Well, first it means that the school district had a good idea-because teens in high school are having sex, with or without protection.  Secondly, it means that those who were worried that giving condoms would give teens “permission to have sex” need not worry-teens aren’t waiting for anyone to give them permission.  Thirdly, it means that now, because of some misinformed people, teens who are going to be sexually active on prom night have to purchase their own condoms, get them from their local health center, or worse case scenario, have sex without protection. 

Folks, here in America, we have to stop and understand the statistics.  Teens are having sex.  And because teens are sexually active, if we don’t provide them with access to the correct protection, they run the risk of unplanned pregnancy, STDs or even HIV.  We have to stop worrying that teens are waiting on the “go ahead” from adults to have sex.  They aren’t-whether we like it or not.  And we have to understand that providing protection doesn’t mean that they are going to make the decision to have sex.  I applaud the original intention of the high school administrators who started this idea, and am astonished at the ignorance of the people who fought to get this option removed from the school prom. 

Americans, teens need more than streamers to have a safe prom night! 

Poli-talks...My Least Favorite at Parties!

Traditionally, and even though I know friends that would scoff at this, I do not like to talk about politics.

When it starts at parties, especially in company of mixed views, I am quite certain it will kill the good time we are all having. To “Mighty Mouse” the situation I “come to save the day” and will suddenly bring up such a random subject that people can’t help but leave the “dirty poli-talks” for another day, sans Taylor.  (“My favorite for a while was, how about those Banana Slugs, did you see the game last night, whew!”  For those that don’t know what I am talking about, like most of my friends, click here.)

The one thing that ALL of my friends will agree that I L-O-V-E talking about is teen and unplanned pregnancy prevention.  I love to talk about what I do, because I also L-O-V-E what I do.  So I talk, and talk, and talk, and talk about contraception, and parent child connectedness, and how abstinence is the best option for our young people, but that they still need the education for when they decide to become sexually active to know how to protect themselves….talk, talk talk Wahwahwahwah wah wah wah wah….I am quite sure half of my friends believe I sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher.

But something has changed here recently.  I can’t talk about my FAVORITE subject without talking about my LEAST FAVORITE subject.  Just like the weird guy at the party, politics are sticking their nose into my convo.

The “political debate” about “contraception” feels so foreign to me, as it does to many of my friends.  To see this on CNN or on any other news channel is like mixing pickles and chocolate (NOT GOOD…DO NOT TRY).  A personal decision like when to have a baby and how to prevent having one until you are ready is not one for the floor of the House or Senate.  It isn’t even one for open discussion between elected officials behind closed doors.  It is between a sexually active person(s) and a medical professional.

I will not end my good time by debating the politics of contraception here, but I will say this. The whole point of this is that people have the right to select their method of family planning.  I do not care what others do for their pregnancy prevention, be that natural family planning or using long acting reversible contraception (LARC).  As Americans, we have the right to make our own plans for our own lives, individually, without the need to consult on the state or federal government level.  When folks stop remembering that and start wanting the family planning conversation to be a POLITICAL CONVERSATION, I start calling them the “Party Poopers” and will immediately change the subject “so how about those Banana Slugs…what a team, am I right!”

by:  Taylor Wilson, Communications Specialist

Condoms Don't Belong at the Country Club

I have a weakness for reality TV. I’m not proud to admit it, but I do, so it’s unsurprising that as I was flipping through channels recently, I got sucked into a new reality series called “Big Rich Texas.”

The thing I immediately loved about Big Rich Texas is that these ladies are Southern. Sure, the Texans are catty and rich, as any reality TV star must be, but they also pride themselves in being demure and proper. It’s the “proper” aspect that made for the interesting episode I saw the other night.

Melissa picked her 15 year old daughter Maddie up from a doctor’s appointment and noticed she was holding a brown paper bag. She asked Maddie what the doctor had given her, and Maddie reluctantly held up a birth control pack. Then Melissa grabbed the bag and discovered the bag also contained a bunch of condoms. She immediately yelled, “Are you having sex?!” but seemed to calm down after Maddie promised she wasn’t.

Later that night, Maddie and her 15 year old friend Grace were getting ready for a big soiree at the country club, when Maddie showed Grace the condoms. Y’all, this was my favorite part! Maddie and Grace decided to open a condom, and they reacted exactly the way you would hope two 15 year olds would react. They started shrieking about how slimy they were. Then they tried to fling them at each other, until they started screaming after one stuck to the bathroom mirror.

The trouble started when Maddie decided to give Grace some condoms, and Grace’s mother, Connie, found them in her purse during the country club event. To put it lightly, Connie did not react well. She yelled at Grace, immediately confronted Maddie’s mother Melissa, and made Grace leave the party early.

I’m not a parent, so I’m automatically not very qualified to judge Connie’s reaction.  I realize that even though it seemed extreme to me, you really don’t know what it’s like to find condoms in your 15 year old daughter’s purse until you’re living that situation. I would probably freak out too. I do hope, however, that Connie had a chance to watch the footage of Grace and Maddie playing with the condoms and realize how innocent they actually are. Unfortunately, there are too many 15 year olds in South Carolina who wouldn’t have been fazed by the condoms, because they’re already having sex. Grace carrying them around in her purse “just because” doesn’t seem so bad in comparison.

I think sometimes our “properness” gets us in trouble in the South. Maybe if we were more willing to talk openly about these things, teens wouldn’t be so eager to have sex, and there wouldn’t be so many teens having sex at the young age of 15. It’s also important to remember that talking about sex does not mean we’re encouraging teens to do it, or conveying that it’s ok. It just means we’re answering their questions and eliminating their curiosity, which leaves one less reason for them to have sex before they’re ready, or to be unsafe when they are.

-- Lauren Angelo is a Graduate Assistant at the SC Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and a MPH student at the University of South Carolina. Contact Lauren at langelo@teenpregnancysc.org

Teens Need a Plan B (but they can't get it over the counter)

Written by: Dr. Melisa Holmes, Co-founder of Girlology and Board Member of the SC Campaign

Emergency contraception (EC), marketed as the product Plan B, is largely misunderstood. As a parent, do you understand it? If not, you’re certainly not alone as evidenced yesterday by a surprising move by the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, who overrode the decision of the FDA to remove the age restriction on emergency contraception availability.  Using science and research to prove safety and effectiveness, the FDA concluded that Plan B One Step should be available over the counter to all ages and no longer require a prescription for those under 17. In political move that ignored the science, the decision was blocked.

As a parent of teens, and a physician to teens and their moms, I understand the concern about moving Plan B from behind the counter into the aisles so that anyone can pick it up along with condoms, pregnancy tests, cold medicine and band-aids. But even though it’s not readily available to all ages, all reproductive age girls and women should know about it and know how to access it, because knowing what to do in case of an emergency is always a good idea. And teens, in particular, need a Plan B (for themselves, or when they are helping a friend).

So, if you understand what EC is and how it works, you’ll realize that there’s little to worry about, but a lot to talk about – especially with your teen. Here’s the lowdown on Plan B.

What is it?
Plan B is a synthetic progesterone pill that is taken after unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy.  It is recommended after unprotected sex, misuse of usual contraception (i.e. forgotten pills, late patch change), and after rape.

If it’s taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, it is 75% effective in preventing pregnancy, but the sooner it’s taken, the more effective it is – up to 95%.

Remember that the “standard” birth control pills contain estrogen and progesterone.  The “mini-pill” that is used for nursing mothers and women who can’t take estrogen contains only progesterone.  Interestingly, progesterone is also the hormone that is often prescribed to women with past miscarriages because progesterone provides important support to an early pregnancy. That means, if a girl or woman is already pregnant, Plan B will not affect, harm or abort the pregnancy.  This is NOT the abortion pill, RU486 or mifepristone (which blocks progesterone).

How does it work?
Basically, Plan B works in similar ways to “traditional” birth control pills, but faster.  How it works depends on when it is taken in relation to the menstrual cycle and unprotected sex.  It has been shown to prevent ovulation (the release of the egg from the ovary), which would obviously prevent fertilization.  It also has been shown to change the endometrium and make is less hospitable for implantation, therefore preventing the fertilized egg from “taking hold.” This is where the controversy comes in for some: if you have ethical problems with preventing a fertilized egg from settling into the endometrium when it arrives in the uterus, then all hormonal birth control should be off your list because that’s one of the ways hormonal birth control works (it also prevents ovulation most of the time, but the other mechanisms improve effectiveness).

Is it dangerous?
Nope.  In fact, it is safer than ibuprofen.  Although most drugs, including “traditional” birth control pills, have a list of contraindications (you hear them listed in pharmaceutical-speed-talk on commercials), Plan B has none. The contraindications and complications that accompany birth control pills are caused by the estrogen in them. Plan B is only progesterone. A progesterone overdose isn’t dangerous, but it might make you moody, nauseated, bloated and mess up your period.

Will teens abuse or overuse it?
Plan B is definitely not a mood enhancer (think premenstrual symptoms), so recreational use won’t be a problem.  But will teens change their behavior and have more unprotected sex if EC is readily available? The research says no. Specifically, research on EC and risk taking has shown that teens (and adult women) that have EC readily available do not increase their bouts of unprotected sex, but they are more likely to use EC appropriately compared with girls and women that have been told about EC but don’t have a prescription or dose on hand. Teens shouldn’t be expected to abuse Plan B anymore than they “abuse” condoms. And at $49.99 a dose (at my local pharmacy), it’s definitely not a first line choice for birth control.

If there’s Plan B, what happened to Plan A?
The naming of this branded emergency contraception formulation is brilliant because it acknowledges that this is a back up plan.  There should always be a “Plan A,” but when it falls through, it’s nice to have a Plan B, too.  This is where parents can step in and have the conversations that matter around this topic.
For teens, sexual abstinence is a preferred Plan A. There’s no question that the most reliable way to prevent pregnancy is to not have sex.  For high school students, this is what most of them are choosing these days (yay). But there are still plenty of teens that choose to have sex, and way too many teen pregnancies occurring in our country.  Plan B provides one more method that can help prevent the far-reaching impact of teen pregnancy.

Most physicians that work with teens and young adults liken the game plan for sexual health to a “belt and suspenders” approach. That means we recommend a hormonal method to prevent pregnancy and condoms to prevent infections.  So for teens, an acceptable Plan A would be to use condoms PLUS birth control pills, the patch, the vaginal ring, hormonal injections, implants or an IUD.  The best method for a teen is the method she can use consistently, correctly and confidently.

As parents, we have to acknowledge that there will be a day when our teen or young adult child chooses to have sex.  Before that happens, we should help her make a plan for staying safe and healthy.  Part of that is making sure she has a good plan in place, and that she thinks through a back up plan, an emergency plan of sorts. Having a back up plan is simply a smart strategy for life. Plan B emergency contraception is a back up plan that she may never need, but it is one more method she can put in her contraceptive tool kit.