Tips for Parents Before Putting Your Teen on Birth Control

A deep debate had centered for years on if parents should put their teen girls on birth control.

Many argue that its better they are on the birth control so they don't end up with an unexpected teen pregnancy.

Others say they will do it regardless of if they are on birth control or not, so put them on the birth control.

Then, you have the ones who think its flat out condoning sexual activity to allow their teen to use birth control.

I am the latter.

Granted, sometimes there is nothing we can do about our teens having sex, but before it happens we can sure try to keep it from happening. And by this I don't mean scare them away from it. With teens, sometimes the more you tell them not too, the more appetizing it becomes.

Putting a teenager, especially the younger ones like thirteen, fourteen and fifteen, on birth control is basically telling them that having sex is OK. Do we really want our kids to think that?

There are things you can do before you resort to putting your child, yes they are still a child, on birth control.

Be open about sex.

Make sure your teen knows that you will talk with them about sex. No matter what it's about, they may have questions about what certain slang words mean, they may want to know when you became sexually active, or to talk about sexual activity in their lives. Web MD says that "A sexually active teen (boy or girl) who is not using any birth control has a 90% chance of conceiving a pregnancy within 1 year." So, aim for abstinence but, realize that if you don't talk to them at all, then they wont realize that they can come to you. Always, always keep yourself open to your children.

Tell them about sexually transmitted diseases.

Now, don't just tell them about things they already know like "Don't have sex because you might get something, you don't know what that other person has." Talk about each specific STD and even look up pictures on the internet. Hint tip: find the worst possible pictures of the diseases you can get. Make sure they know that birth control does not protect against STD's and that some will be with them forever.

Make sure they know that some STD's can be spread through oral sex too, not just intercourse.

Tell your story.

Telling your story to your teen may gross them out, but it will also make them realize that you are being open with them. No matter what kind of story you have it will impact them. If you had a teen pregnancy, they will know you simply want more for them. If you waited until you were eighteen or older, then they will see what a good example you are. That people actually do wait.

Assure teen girls that love does not equal sex.

Most teen girls end up having sex because they are on a quest for love. Talk about the difference between love and sex with your teen. Tell her that for him to respect her, than she needs to respect herself too. There is a lot of discussion that can be used for this, again you can use your own story if it applies.

Discuss the side effects of birth control.

Besides sex there are other problems that may occur from your teen being on birth control. Any woman knows how many hormones are in birth control. Do we really want our kids all jacked up on more hormones than they already have.

Birth Control also has a ton of side effects, depending on what kind is being used.

These tips are only a few of the things you can do before you resort to placing your teen on birth control. If you are uncomfortable talking to your teen, Planned Parenthood has a website with lots of information and where they can also ask experts their questions.

Avert also has a great website for teens about sex and birth control. Both sites encourage abstinence but, give the information your teen may need.

Sources:
Avert: http://www.avert.org/birth-control-contraception.htm
Web MD:http://www.webmd.com/sex/birth-control/birth-control-teens-and-birth-control
Planned Parenthood: http://asktheexperts.plannedparenthood.org/?cat=11