By Dr. W. Gifford Jones
July 5, 2003
So you think little Johnny and Mary are just going to the Saturday movies, and nothing else will happen? Well, if this is what you believe, you're living in Disney World. And it's high time that you, doctors and society took a new look at the current world of teenagers. If you don't, you may be one of the thousands of parents who have to face an unwanted teenage pregnancy. It's time we all took a hard, and unemotional look at the Cape Breton solution.
Dr. Victoria Davis, an expert on adolescent gynecology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, recently addressed the annual meeting of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada. Her plea? Society must make family planning more accessible to women ages 15 to 24, starting in the public school system.
It's a justifiable demand. Canada's shame is that as a developed country over 110,000 abortions are performed every year. And the majority are done on women under 25 years of age.
Another frightening scenario is that large numbers of unmarried teenagers have unplanned pregnancies and 95 percent of those who deliver their baby keep it rather than agree to adoption. And when children are having children parents and society have problems.
One fact is sure. Unless there's a second coming of the Lord teenage sex is here to stay. They are no longer thrilled by just holding hands at the local movie house.
Dr. Diane Francoeur, associate professor at the University de Montreal counsels teenagers. She reminded doctors at the recent meeting that today some teenage girls start their periods at age 9. It's therefore not unusual for them to become sexually active at age 13.
Current statistics are enough to make a parent's hair stand on end. Studies show that by age 15, 35 percent of boys and 20 percent of girls have experienced sexual intercourse. By age 17, 80 percent of boys and half the girls are sexually active.
If these figures haven't turned a few hairs gray these may give you insomnia. Dr. Francoeur says that 50 percent of teenagers have unprotected sex for the first six months. Why would they take this risk? Simply because they had not planned to have sex. Or they did not know where to get contraception. And unsafe sex also means the risk of sexually transmitted disease (STD).
So what about unlucky parents whose girl/child becomes pregnant? Dr Francoeur reports that 17 percent of pregnant teens become pregnant again within one year! And from 28 to 50 percent become pregnant again within two years.
You can't point the finger at any one cause for this chaos. Some girls blame "peer pressure". They say "all the others are doing it." Or the youthful attitude "it's not going to happen to me". All are formulas for disaster.
So what can be done? Family planning nurses in Cape Breton have reduced the unplanned pregnancy rate by 80 percent by visiting schools, counseling teenagers on safer sex and dispensing birth control pills every month. But pills don't work if you don't take them. And family planning nurses say that "forgetfulness" is a big problem with young people.
One birth control pill , Marvelon, helps to solve this problem with an electronic smart card, a space-age alarm clock. All you do is activate the starter button when the first pill is taken. Twenty-four hours later a reminder alarm sounds and repeats every 20 seconds for three hours until the pill is taken. If the alarm is not stopped, the card gives a second reminder eight hours later. Once programmed the smart card works for three months.
If we had more Cape Breton thinking in Canada and more birth control packages with smart cards teenagers would face fewer unwanted pregnancies.
Already I can already hear critics screaming that this move is morally wrong and merely helps to promote sex. But the figures show that teenagers have already promoted sex themselves. Unless dramatic steps are taken, the alternative for parents is bleak.
W. Gifford-Jones M.D is the pen name of Dr. Ken Walker graduate of Harvard. Dr. Walker's website is: Docgiff.com
My book, �90 + How I Got There� can be obtained by sending $19.95 to:
Giff Holdings, 525 Balliol St, Unit # 6,Toronto, Ontario, M4S 1E1
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