Now Playing: Two Way Street (Live Studio Session) by Kimbra (and I think I'm ready to let you get under my skin, I can't make you fall for me because love is a two way street)
The problem I have with sex education is that they gloss over the stuff they don't want you to know.
Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is a potentially fatal illness that is thought to be caused by people using super absorbent tampons (and therefore not changing them frequently), which can introduce dangerous bacteria to the cervix, which is particularly vulnerable to infection during menstruation. There isn't a lot of research because feminine hygiene is a HUGE business and sales would completely plummet if people knew about the dangers and knew of alternatives that don't make as much money. The menstrual cup, for example, has all the benefits of tampons - internal, discreet, can be used during water sports, can't be felt, etc - is reusable and therefore cost-effective and good for the environment, and is not associated with TSS because it doesn't come into contact with the cervix. People don't know stuff like this and it's disgusting that such important education and awareness about our own bodies is withheld so that big corporations can milk money from chemical laden synthetic disposable means of managing menstruation.
Another thing that they keep telling us is that we MUST go on THE PILL...for anything, really. It's become a cure-all, which is a dangerous attitude to take towards something that is screwing around with hormones. So many people use the pill to manage weight or control acne, and it's constantly marketed as the ONLY way to practice safer sex. What they don't tell you is that hormonal contraceptives, like the pill, is linked to mental illnesses - which makes sense, if you think about it, because it's hormones and hormones have such a profound effect on your emotions. Again, there is very little research into this, but Germaine Greer in The Female Eunuch states that '1 in 3' women on the pill got depression when the oral contraceptive was first released in the 60s. Messing up your hormones can also damage your physical health, too - one of my aunts had to have a hysterectomy after her doctor allowed her to use a particularly potent form of birth control that was totally inappropriate for her age and season of life for an extended period of time.
Women aren't told of these things. And most of the reason is money. And stigma. We like to think that popping a pill solves all our problems.
Why isn't there more research into this? There has to be a more effective form of birth control without screwing with hormones. It just seems like such a dangerous way to go about it - hormones are so underestimated but I now first hand what happens when they get out of sync. Male contraceptives aren't nearly so dangerous - there are no drastic health consequences that I know of from using condoms or getting a vasectomy. But part of female liberation, it seems, is to try and con nature.
There are alternatives, of course - but they all sound rather disturbing. I would rather not have copper inserted into my uterus to make it 'hostile'. I'd rather not have chemicals capable of killing sperm inside of me. I'd rather have a barrier contraceptive for women that actually freaking works.
The public reaction to all these things is extraordinarily flippant - we keep thinking that this stuff 'won't happen to us', even though we're all aware that it does happen. Put it this way. The odds of having dextrocardia, which is having the heart situated on the right side of the body, is thought to be 1 in 12,000. You might be one of those 11,999 people who don't have it. Statistics and mathematics say that you probably are. But guess what? I am that one person! Something that is 'rare' is not 'non-existent'.
In some ways I'm glad that I'm not in a situation where I really have to worry about this stuff too much, but it'll inevitably come up and it's a conundrum that I can't really see a way out of. I have depression and hormonal imbalances and I do not need to throw contraception into the mix. I wish there was a safe, effective means of birth control that didn't involve messing with what is already arguably pretty messed up. It doesn't seem like too much to ask in this day and age.
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