Teens Critical of Sexual Health Information Online

(Flickr/ChepeNicoli)

Via Guttmacher, a new study conducted by Guttmacher's own Rachel K. Jones and Ann E. Biddlecom of the United Nations Population Division discovered teens are wary of information about sex they find on the internet (or Internet, if you're the AP Stylebook). It's almost as if they discovered that information found on in the interwebz is sometimes unreliable! Instead they'd rather rely on advice from family members, teachers, or -- gasp -- their doctors. It's almost as if these savvy teens recognize that sexual health is related to other health.

Seriously, though, I think this study reveals that teens are just as smart (or smarter) than the rest of us. It's not that there isn't good information out there on the internet (Scarleteen, Sex, etc., Planned Parenthood's teen site, AmplifyYour Voice, and It's Your Sex Life are all great resources), but teens have figured out that information on the internet varies based on the writer's bias. The Guttmacher press release noted that, "The teens indicated a distrust of online information because it is often user-generated and could therefore be incorrect." Reading information on the internet is much like encountering information in the rest of your life. You have to figure out what information reliable and what information isn't. Sometimes, it's harder to tell than other times.

Teens are turning to people they already trust because, well, they already trust them in other aspects of life. But like anything, the folks you trust to get you to school on time or teach you algebra theory might be a great resource -- or they might not. The important thing for teens to do as they suss out information on sex, whether they are thinking about becoming sexually active right then or want to wait until later in life, is to use their critical thinking skills and look for sources that are trustworthy, whether online or in real life (IRL for you teens!).

Most important, there should be an abundance of good information out there. One grad student in public health admitted on a listserv I'm on that she sometimes killed time by responding to sexual health-related inquiries on Yahoo! Answers. It's a great way of contributing in a small way for those teens who may not feel comfortable going to family members or other adults for information.

So if you have the expertise, this seems like an easy way to help tilt the scale toward good information online.

'Jersey Shore,' 'Celebrity Rehab' Stars Pop Valtrex, Other STD Meds

Alyssa Rosenberg alerted me to this rather disturbing story about how reality television producers of shows like "Jersey Shore" and, um, "Celebrity Rehab" (I had no idea such a show even existed) constantly worry about STDs on their show -- presumably because they don't want to be sued for spreading them.

"The network [VH1] requires me to do stuff with my patients that has no relevance to anything," Dr. Drew Pinsky, the host of "Celebrity Rehab," says.

"Like everyone on the set has to take [herpes medication] Valtrex," he said.

"We hand it out like M&Ms!" ["Jersey Shore" creator SallyAnn] Salsano said. " 'Hey kids, it's time for Valtrex!' It's like a herpes nest. They're all in there mixing it up."

Although one's gut reaction might be to be grossed out by this, it seems to me that reality shows that worry about such STDs, despite having a slightly different mission, could use this as a teaching moment (yeah, I know, I'm talking about MTV, here). But the reality is that most people keep sex and STDs separate in their minds -- rather than noting that basic precautions can and should be taken if one is sexually active. Producers could even film reality stars popping the Valtrex, yet the producers gloss over it, leaving it as a behind-the-scenes detail. Unfortunately, STDs are very real, but they'll never make it into "reality."

Teens Not as Risque as Some Might Have You Think

Yesterday the New York Times had a story about teens and sex. Thank goodness it's not another article about how teens are having more sex and we really need to be teaching them not to. Instead, the article attempts to counter all those myths about how teens are hypersexual.

In fact, the article argues that teens today are less active sexually than they have been in the past. But what's interesting is the grammatic switch the Times presents:

A 2002 report from the Department of Health and Human Services found that 30 percent of 15- to 17-year-old girls had experienced sex, down from 38 percent in 1995. During the same period, the percentage of sexually experienced boys in that age group dropped to 31 percent from 43 percent.

Apparently girls "experience sex" but boys are "sexually experienced." Awesome. (h/t)

Soundly, though, the article points out that teen pregnancy isn't up because teens are having more sex, it's because they're having more unprotected sex. This is probably brought about by all the preaching about how unreliable condoms are. But in the words of former surgeon general Dr. Jocelyn Elders, "I think we need to get over our ideas about how condoms will break. We know condoms will break, but the vows of abstinence break far more frequently than latex condoms."

Rule on Women and Health Care Access to be Finalized

The really awful proposed rule that Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Levitt is trying to push through in his last few weeks of public service is expected to be finalized this week. The rule not only “protects” doctors and nurses who receive federal money from administering health care to women due to their “religious beliefs”–something that is already covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964–but also seeks to redefine birth control as abortion. That way, the rule protects a doctor if he or she refuses to administer an abortion or birth control.

Obama opposes the rule and is expected to reverse it once in office, but that process could take three to six months. What’s also interesting is that the rule was proposed after the deadline of June 1 was waived by the White House for reasons that still haven’t been specified. It seems that this is just a last-minute “fuck you” to women’s rights groups.

Cross posted at Pushback.

Scrabble About Sex

Weirdly enough, I woke up this morning with Salt-N-Peppa's "Let's Talk About Sex" stuck in my head. While it mostly made me nostalgic for the '90s, with big pants and neon colors, it also reminded me how controversial that song was when it first came out. It was a song that had three women rapping about sex -- how awesome it is and how dangerous it can be. If you click on the link above it shows the video that even has a skeleton with the word AIDS written across it.

Ultimately it's a good reminder that sex is, at its core, about communication. Having honest discussions about sex is a lot less scary than not having them. Many women are afraid to have the conversation about birth control, orgasms, or condoms. By making it more acceptable to talk about it, we're doing everyone a favor. Too bad we're still promoting abstinence-only programming.

Over the Counter Sexual Experience

Everyone I've talked to that went to see Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 seems totally embarrassed that they went to go see it. Well, I went ahead and saw it since I read all of the books and (go ahead, laugh at me) loved them. The movie was pretty great overall, since it focuses on the girls and their ambitions and goals. But there was something that differed from the book. [Spoilers below.]

The storyline with Tibby was almost the same as in the book -- except for one important detail. After she and Brian have sex for the first time and the condom breaks, the movie doesn't even mention emergency contraception as an option. In the book, written by Ann Brashares, Brian calls her to tell her she can still get emergency contraception and even looks up the address of the nearest Planned Parenthood. But Tibby is pretty much in denial (emphasis added):

She didn't want to know the address of the Planned Parenthood. She didn't want to have that kind of life. She didn't want to get examined by a gynecologist and fill a prescription. She wanted her sexual experience to be strictly over the counter.

Interestingly enough, since the book was written EC has become available over the counter. But Tibby, normally one of my favorite characters in the series, reacts in an extremely irrational way to a fairly common problem. After all, that's why they invented emergency contraception. And she somehow gets confused, like needing EC makes her a different kind of person than she was before she had sex.

Weirdly enough, before the film, there was a trailer for the movie House Bunny.

Somehow we can't have a realistic conversation about EC between a girl and her boyfriend who have sex for the first time when the condom breaks, but it's a-OK to show smart young women what they really need is to be more like a Playboy Bunny.

The Gardasil Opt-Out

In Australia, 173,607 school-age girls were offered free HPV vaccines, also known as Gardasil. Of those, about 23 percent opted out of the vaccine. It's true that the shot, developed by Big Pharma giant Merck, has been loaded with controversy, even among those on the left. But you'll notice that this story isn't about the more than 100,000 girls that received the vaccine and will have a greatly reduced risk of cancer. Instead the story is about those that chose not to take the vaccine. I'm not saying that people shouldn't be allowed to opt out. Of course they should, but the controversy has always left me mystified.

We know that Gardasil's negative effects have been overreported. The doctors and nurses at my ob-gyn office even said they've never seen a negative effect beyond a stinging or a sore arm. Because Gardasil involves the parents of young girls thinking about those girls having sex some day, people always get a little nervous. You never see people opting out of polio vaccines. Perhaps after the vaccine has been around for longer, and the FDA approves the vaccine for men and older women, the stigma will begin to ease. At the end of the day, the HPV vaccine is one of the few ways to knowingly prevent cancer.

Multiple Sex Partners, You Do the Math

In this rather odd NYTimes article, it says that men have, in median numbers, more heterosexual partners than women do. Gina Kolata, upon consulting some mathematicians, says this is impossible. The economists over at Crooked Timber, think differently. Meanwhile, the larger question is, why are these numbers unequal? Regardless if the numbers are right, women either say they have fewer partners or they actually do. I would say it largely has to do with a social standard. Men are expected to have more partners. A man with a lot of sexual partners is a "player" whereas a woman with a lot of sexual partners is a "slut." Now, economists, you tell me who has more incentive to rack up the numbers.

Cross-posted at Campus Progress.