Are you talkin' to me?

This week Scarleteen, the US young people's sexual health information and support website, is asking young people want they want from sex and relationships education (SRE). Check out some of their great ideas: "Only unbiased teachers" "Factual information, please!" It was a great reminder of how young people's voices can sometimes get lost in the hubub about their own SRE.

How can we keep the dialogue up on our side of the pond?

• If you're a professional, ask young people what they want to know about sex and relationships and how they want to hear it. The Sex Ed Forum even publishes a handy toolkit on involving young people in assessing and planning SRE curricula
• If you're a young person, speak up! Sure, it's awkward, but most professionals will be happy for the help
• If you're a parent, do you know what your young person's school is providing in SRE? Feel free to use our abortion education survey to find out
  

The above poster hangs above my desk at the EFC office, reminding us every day of what young people want and why we do what we do. Thanks to Shine Aloud, Newham's young people's sexual health steering committee, and the Newham Young Parents Group for their awesome work (on this and on so many other things!).

Myth-Busting Monday: Do abortions routinely take place right up until 24 weeks?

Every Monday EFC busts myths and take names, cutting through the misinformation, disinformation, and straight up nonsense to bring you the facts.

Abortions rarely take place later in pregnancy.  In fact, less than 2% of abortions take place after 20 weeks. Although abortion is a safe procedure overall, risks do increase with gestation, so it’s preferable for women to have abortions as early in pregnancy as possible. 90% of abortions now take place within the first 12 weeks. Early access also helps ensure women are able to access services closer to home. Women seeking abortion even after 12 weeks are often forced to travel out of their local areas to a small number of clinics around the country that offer later abortions.

Being 18

In addition to news today that sex ed is not up to snuff in many parts of the country, the completely fascinating (though not-very-catchily-named) Youth Cohort Study and Longitudinal Survey of Young People in England was published today. It's full of detailed information about the behaviour of 18-year-olds across England, including, for the first time, sexual behaviour.

What did we learn? For one thing, despite not always receiving much support from schools and families, most 18-year-olds are doing their best to stay sexually healthy: over half of young people NEVER have sex without "precautions or contraception", while only 2% have unprotected sex all the time. Furthermore, 97% of 18-year-olds who knew they had an STI accessed treatment for it. We didn't really learn anything new about the fact that young people sometimes face unintended pregnancy, and that some of these young people choose to continue their pregnancies, while others opt for abortion.

What did the media learn? I'll give you a hint: it starts with "N" and ends with "othing". Okay, I'm being harsh. But I couldn't help but be disappointed. Despite all this interesting news, the ever-reliable Metro went with "1 in 8 teenagers girls gets pregnant" for a headline. (Apparently no boys were involved, girls just "get" pregnant. Do you think it's airborne? Dust off your swine flu masks, everyone.) Yes, this is a very interesting statistic, and it's worth talking about. But just once, couldn't we start with a pat on the back for young people? While newspapers are busy shouting themselves blue about the "teenage pregnancy epidemic" (see below), young people have been quietly getting on with being really sensible. As the astute Dr. Petra pointed out, couldn't we have a headline about getting these young people better support and better education instead?

Lest I fall into my same old "dang media" ramble, let me add that Metro at least made the link between unintended teenage pregnancy (which, of course, not all teenage conceptions are) and the lack of sex education. That's actually a great start. But until the media catches up with us, let us simply note that in at least one way (and depending on how you feel about eye liner, in so many ways) Alice Cooper was wrong: 18-year-olds do sometimes know what they want. (And they don't have babies' brains- that's a really weird line anyway). Despite not always having someone to talk to or learn from about sexual health, they're trying to take care of themselves, and props to them.

Outbreak! The teen pregnancy "epidemic"?

The brilliant Choice USA just tweeted (not sure what I mean? Check out our Twitter account!) a Huffington Post article about the myth of the teenage pregnancy epidemic by its director, Kierra Johnson. The article itself is worth a read, not least because of brilliant bits like this:

“Teenage pregnancy isn't the epidemic. The lack of information and support for people to make healthy decisions about their lives is the true epidemic. The culture of shame and scapegoating around sex is the real problem. And this epidemic crosses generations, with young people feeling the brunt of it.”

In the parlance of our times, word.

Although the author refers to many uniquely American phenomena (the abstinence-promoting billboard, for example. A favourite in my home state of Wisconsin informs the driver that true love waits, mother is heart of the family, and you should choose life – 3 messages for the price of one!), the article makes several points that apply to the UK, too. The most interesting and important point the author makes – what is the “problem” with teens having sex? – I couldn’t articulate better.

I think there are several reasons why the idea of the teenage pregnancy “epidemic” is a pretty useless concept. As Johnson points out, it’s not sex or pregnancy that are inherently the problem, it’s a lack of informed choice and support. A more prosaic but nonetheless important reason this “epidemic” is nonsense is the myth about the rates of teenage pregnancy. At a training on Monday, I was reminded of this issue when some participants referred to the “rising teenage pregnancy rate”. Whether or not you think teenage pregnancy is a “problem”, the teenage conception rate in the UK has not risen over the last ten years. In fact, it's fallen. Unfortunately, though, constant media panic about teenage pregnancy and perennial “Teens have sex!” headlines lead even sexual health professionals (I was guilty of this too, trainees, until I started at EFC- I’m not picking on you!) to believe the rates are higher than ever. In fact, teens today are far less likely to become pregnant than they were in Britain in the 1950s. So whenever anyone gets nostalgic for the alleged golden era of “family values” I suggest s/he a) watch Mad Men and think about what it was like to be gay, female, black, or anyone other than Don Draper and b) consider that “kids these days” are just like “kids those days”.

Myth-Busting Monday: If it's my first time/I do it standing up/I'm on my period, can I get pregnant?

Every Monday EFC busts myths and take names, cutting through the misinformation, disinformation, and straight up nonsense to bring you the facts.

Although women are most at risk of pregnancy around the time they ovulate, women can get pregnant at all times of the month, in any position, at any time in their reproductive lives!  Many women use contraception inconsistently or not at all and may not get pregnant immediately, but this should not be taken to mean that they are not fertile. Even if they have been lucky a few times, they may not be the next time, so women who don’t want to be pregnant should assume that every sexual encounter puts them at risk of pregnancy and should use contraception.

Working Links for NICE consultation

The links in the blogpost on NICE (below) aren't working. To save you copying and pasting them fromt he article here are the working links

A link to the guidance is here and simple word document comments form to submit is here

EFC response to NICE is here

The consultation closes at 5pm this afternoon.

EFC response to NICE consultation

Tomorrow is the deadline for responding to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) draft guidance on sex and relationships (SRE) and alcohol education. NICE was set up to make recommendations for practitioners and policy makers in public health. NICE looks at the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of different treatments and approaches.

Most of this guidance is extremely common sense stuff taken from years of research into what works in SRE ( in a nutshell, talking about everything accurately) and what doesn’t (in a nutshell abstinence only education and lying to children).

There are also several points in the guidance where it recommends working with people from faith communities to deliver SRE and alcohol education. This despite a dearth of evidence that people with a religious position on sexual behaviour are the best people to educate young people on sexual health and behaviour. Soon I will publish a blog post on a presentation I have delivered to various conferences on Ethics AND Evidence, in which I argue that both must be addressed within SRE. I am as happy as the next guy to think about the range of views and values which inform our sexual identities and behaviours. However, I believe strongly that SRE should remain a neutral space in which evidence-based information from reliable sources is provided to young people and in which they are encouraged to distinguish between facts and values.

Therefore I have written to NICE asking that they remove the recommendations to work with the faith community on delivery of SRE. If you want to respond to this consultation the deadline is 5PM tomorrow. A link to the guidance is here http://bit.ly/autuw2 and simple word document comments form to submit is here http://bit.ly/9d9dwO

My response to NICE is here http://bit.ly/d5c621