A lot of women and men battling infertility are also stepping up to the plate to battle infertility ignorance. Or, to put a more positive spin on it, there are so many amazing warriors out there spreading the word and promoting infertility awareness.
That’s all fine and dandy and will continue to blaze trails on the road to greater acceptance and better treatments.
There is one major point that has the potential to snowball and do its own advocacy — education.
What if sexual education was restructured to include more information about reproductive health than the average sexually transmitted diseases teachers and parents are worried teens will catch from their boyfriends and/or girlfriends? What if students were taught to be more responsible for their health over and above just using protection?
Finish reading Blazing Trails With Better Education at Alphabet Soup, Fertility Flavor, my blog for FertilityAuthority.com.
I couldn’t agree more. R and I are just beginning our journey of TTC (not avoiding only at this point), and I’m so thankful that I have a mother who was very open about fertility and sex, as well as a best friend’s mom who was a nurse and a doula. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have any of the meager knowledge that I do have. Knowledge allows you to be empowered. Why not empower our children?
I have given you an award because you are someone I read all the time, and I think you deserve it! I’m new to this and I don’t know how to contact you with the details, so I’ll just give you this link to the post where I explain it all… http://cadnawes.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/one-lovely-blog-award/ Thank you for making my life a little less lonely
xxx
I think it’s a great idea, however I’m not sure the intended audience will pay that much attention to it. I know when I was younger my biggest concern was how to NOT get pregnant. I didn’t spend any time wondering or worrying about what would happen if I tried to get pregnant and couldn’t. So if they can structure it in a way that would be meaningful to them right then at that point in their lives, I think it would be great.
Indeed. As important as it is to teach kids to avoid pregnancy and deadly diseases, it is still important to teach kids to protect their future reproductive health as well.
I think it is a great idea. I think it would help women and men not feel so ashamed about being infertile. But, I feel as a teenager in high school and some kids in MIDDLE school do sex. ed. now I wouldn’t have given two craps about infertility. Though it isn’t talked about until you are experiencing it. There has got to be a way to approach this subject earlier before you are walking through it.
Jessica
If I were writing lesson plans, I’d focus on the health aspect. A lot of problems affect people of all ages. Ovarian cysts, PCOS, endometriosis – those are all issues often undiagnosed in teens even though teens are already experiencing symptoms. A simple “this will likely affect your fertility in the future” ON TOP of an actual diagnosis (my PCOS was written off – by my doctor – as “teens are often irregular,” and PCOS was something I’d never heard of). Various issues that could affect male factor infertility – injuries and such – are somewhat discussed, but that could also use a boost.