The topic of sex remains in an awkward “gray area” for many Athens teenagers – a fitting
conversation between pals in the back of the bus or at an overcrowded lunch table, but
socially taboo with parents and school officials.
Unfortunately, many teens hold the perception that adequate protection from sexually
transmitted infections (STI’s) and unwanted pregnancy can be found with the aid of a
crinkly, two-year-old condom stuffed semi-neatly in a wallet next to a frequent buyer
card at Little Caesars.
Jordan Shapiro, a seventeen-year-old from Dallas, GA, agreed to share her experience,
explaining how the true consequences of misinformed sex came at an unexpected cost.
“I remember before I got pregnant, I would see pregnant teenagers at my school and
think, ‘How could they get pregnant? How stupid,’” Shapiro said. “But you don’t have to
be stupid to get pregnant. I was an Honor’s Student, active in JROTC, had a part time job
and was in [the] Student Government. I still got pregnant — life will find a way.”
Many teenagers see sex as a goal to reach, that once achieved guarantees immense
popularity and respect amongst peers.
“All teenagers have a sense of invincibility,” Shapiro said. “Often times girls, and even
guys, get involved in promiscuous circumstances and have the notion they’ll walk away
unscathed.”
Unfortunately, the metaphorical trophy earned by tearing up a V-card outweighs
any real possibility of bringing a screaming, kicking baby in to the world — a
notion that is instantly forgotten once that first “time of the month” is missed.
Although pregnancy prevention methods are readily available to those in need, it’s this
misconception of “it could never happen to me” that often leads many down a road they
were not prepared for.
“We did not use a condom,” Shapiro said. “I had been in a relationship with the
biological father for over a year — I trusted him. We had practiced other natural forms of
birth control but he ‘slipped up.’”
According to a 2005 Clarke County survey of local teenagers, 65% admitted to having
engaged in sexual activities – a number that might shock parents, but actually seem
relatively low to students. In fact, the birth rate in Athens-Clarke County is actually eight
times that of the entire country of France.
With so many teens admitting to being sexually active, the topic of teenage pregnancy
is nearly impossible to tackle from any particular anagle. Many professionals point to
the notion of simply being misinformed as a potential cause of many of the teenage
pregnancies.
“It’s a state law that anyone of reproductive age, whether or not they’re over the age
of 18, can seek reproductive services and birth control without the need for parental
consent,” said Sarah Peck, a Public Information Officer for the Northeast Health District
in Athens.
Teen Matters, an off-shoot of the public health department that has been around
since the 1990s, offers teens the security of sensitive services at a price that any
teenager can easily afford without sacrificing their daily trip to the vending machine.
“All the services at Teen Matters are free,” Peck said. “They offer pelvic exams, pap
smears, testing for sexually transmitted infections – including HIV – and a variety of
different types of birth control methods.”
Condoms are also available free of charge, as well as counseling if teens want to discuss
any aspects of their lives.
“A lot of teens are unaware that the services are confidential,” Peck said. “They
don’t understand exactly what confidentiality means, and that that’s a state law we’re
observing.”
Although parental involvement is by no means required at Teen Matters, it is still
encouraged and should begin in the home. At a time when kids and teens are being
exposed to things of explicit nature in the media (“bags of sand” means more to
most students then their unsuspecting parents), the “birds and the bees” should
not be left for Rated-R comedies to explain — it’s the responsibility of the parent.
“Parents are the first sex educators for all children,” said Katy Janousek, Sexual Health
Coordinator at the University Health Center. “The first line of education needs to come
from the primary care giver, which in many cases is a single parent, a guardian, maybe a
grandparent, so it’s not always just parents that are able to be there and have that type of
discussion with their children.
Serving as both an educator and guest lecturer in college classrooms, Janousek works
in the Health Promotion Department, working closely with students on and off campus,
and even does outreach for fraternities and sororities, as well as going to residence halls.
According to Janousek, the barrier between safe-sex and uninformed decisions often
times begins when teens try and purchase contraceptives.
“I had noticed since I moved to Georgia from Virginia that many places that sell
condoms actually lock them up,” Janousek said. “When I asked about it, they said it was
because they were having problems with theft. So there again we’re seeing that just the
stigma surrounding buying condoms is causing people to be too embarrassed to take them
to the cash register, maybe even to go through self check-out. The alternative then is
someone who’s too embarrassed to buy them now has to ask somebody else to open the
case.
The obvious issue that arises when teens are unable to attain contraceptives is unplanned
pregnancy, however, a new pill is helping change that.
Plan B, a hot and controversial topic amongst health officials and the FDA, is sold at
local pharmacies such as Kroger and Wal-Mart as an emergency contraceptive to be
ingested immediately after unplanned pregnancy.
“17 and older can get it without a prescription, though parental consent is required for
those 16 and younger,” said Dr. Kerri Wenslow, a 2006 University of Georgia alumna
and head pharmacist of Walgreens.
Taken with water in one and two pill doses, the active ingredient is 75 mg of a single
active steroid, levonorgestrel, which is essentially a high dose of birth control and
prevents the fertilized egg from attaching to the uterine wall.
If taken within three days, the pill can be highly effective, though sooner is always better.
Once implantation has occurred, Plan B will no longer work.
“If you’re already pregnant, it won’t do anything,” Wenslow said. “Timing is very
important”
It may seem that erasing a mistake is as easy a popping a bill, but that is not the case.
Plan B comes with risks.
“If you took too much plan B, you could theoretically throw off your hormone balance,”
Wenslow said. “It could be harder to pregnant later on when you’re actually ready to
have a family.”
Wenslow stressed teenagers who smoke should be extra cautious when using
Plan B, since there is an increased risk of breast cancer, heart disease and stroke.
Ultimately, the decision to start having sex is up to the teenager and should be thought
about far before an innocent night of ice cream and Redbox leads to missing graduation
due to labor pains.
“I think it’s important for anybody, regardless of their age, to think about what they value
and what they believe in,” Janousek said. “They need to ask themselves questions like,
Am I ready to have sex? Do I want the same thing that my partner wants out of having
sex? Is this a relationship or a one time thing? Do I know how to prevent pregnancy? Do I
know how to prevent STI’s? Am I comfortable getting ways to have protection such as
buying condoms or having birth control?
For Jordan Shapiro, the ultimate decision to engage in unprotected sex came with it a
slew of bigger problems she had never considered.
“People seem to forget that in teen pregnancies, it’s not about the teen, it’s about
the baby,” Shapiro said. “That baby is going to demand all of his or her basic essentials
in life — food, shelter, clothing, a car seat, a Halloween costume, surgery for a broken
bone, lunch money, a car when they’re sixteen, and a college fund. Ask yourself if you’re
ready to provide all of that AND good parenting skills. If not, then just wait.”
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