Posted on 06/10/2009 10:17:31 PM PDT by bdeaner
A cancer awareness group says as schools pass out birth control to young girls, they are failing to notify them about an increased health risk.
According to Karen Malec, president of The Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, young girls who are prescribed estrogen+progestin-based birth control by their school nurses are at an increased risk for breast, cervix, and liver cancer. World Health Organization conducted a study in 2005 and found that type of birth control carcinogenic.
"In other words, they cause cancer in human beings," she notes. "And they assign these drugs the highest level of carcinogenicity -- the highest level is group one."
Malec believes the worst time in a young woman's life to be exposed to this level of carcinogen is before the birth of her first child. The Coalition is urging concerned parents and individuals to contact their school officials.
"But it's really the doctors and the nurses who are responsible for giving the information to the high school officials. They're not doing that, and so we're just asking people to please contact the high school's officials and let them know about this fact that the World Health Organization has acknowledged these drugs as cancer-causing."
I was on the pill before having my first child and was diagnosed with pre-cervical cancer while pregnant with my third. I have been against hormonal birth control for a long time now and will not let my daughters use it. Yes, I believe in abstinence for teenagers, but I will teach my daughters about understanding their cycle and alternates to hormonal birth control.
Ping!!
I recently told my 8th graders (I’m a school nurse) that condoms are not the end-all in protection against STDs and even pregnancy. I’d had a lot of parent request to tell them to use condoms, so I said I would, but I told them the truth about them as well as asking them to use them for pregnancy prevention. Even the health teacher was shocked at the STD risk still involved and said she was so glad she’d asked me to talk to them.
I told the students that whether for religious reasons or not, it was not safe to engage in premarital sex, and asked them to defer that gratification at least until they graduate HS and were more mature in regards to making decisions if the condom doesn’t work. I also told them about the risks of oral sex, since so many seem to think this is safe! I was surprised I didn’t get a lot of angry parent feed-back, but there was none. Maybe there is hope that reason will have a resurgence, after all.
Maybe you could use it as a learning leap with statistics. I did that with my son, am planning on doing that with my daughter. They claim a certain degree of protectiveness, but that claim diminishes with frequency. sounds like the parents should be educated as well. I am staightfoward with my kids, but maybe you could start with something else. Also, wouldn’t hurt to remind them that snorting ADD meds can cause sexual dysfunction... I use a balloon to demonstrate the effects of vaso- constrictor abuse, but again, I am straight up with my kids on this, you may not have that option.
There was a town in Georgia that had a bad STD outbreak a few years ago. They were able to create a web of the teens and connect who had sex with whom. I though it was a great visual that demonstrates how STD’s are transmitted and that you are subject to the medical histories of all your partner’s partners.
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