Culture
World Contraception Day: It’s more than important!
Jessica Desrosiers for Essencelle.ca
Nowadays, contraception is a subject that is still too taboo, and yet so important...
We all know that people with a uterus have not always been able to benefit from many options and open dialogues when it comes to contraception.
Today, there are more options available than ever before! This means that we can choose the contraceptive methods that suit our individual needs, but also that we can change which methods we use over the course of our lives. After all, our bodies, our desires and our lifestyles are constantly changing. We should be able to change our contraception too!
I would like to share my experience with you because I never really had the chance to be well informed about my contraceptive options when I was young.
When I was 14 years old, I heard some friends talking about contraception and I wanted to know more. Indeed, this was the first time I had heard about contraception at all – while talking with my girlfriends! Not in a science class, not in a family discussion, not even with a doctor, but through my friends!
I woke up in the morning and went to see my mom to tell her that I too wanted to use contraception (the only method I knew about at the time was the one my friends had mentioned)! My mother looked astonished. “Okay,” she said, “but are you having sex?” This made me very embarrassed and I thought, “oh… so you have to be sexually active to take contraception?”
Why did I want to protect myself if I wasn't having sex?
Maybe I didn’t really need to use contraception at that time? This proves how little I knew about sexuality, how little I knew about my body and how little I knew about contraception—I was sorely lacking in education.
So, I quickly abandoned the idea… It was only years later, during an appointment with my doctor, that I had the opportunity to talk about contraception again. And I have to tell you that I was really embarrassed. I remember blushing and feeling very uncomfortable. My heart was beating fast. I didn’t feel like talking to him about it. After all, he had known me since I was a child. It was embarrassing!
I think that if I had been exposed to more open discussions about sexuality, it would have been much easier for me to share with him. The whole situation would have been simpler and less awkward.
Looking back, I realize that I relied a lot on my friends’ experiences to learn about contraception, and in the end, I also realized that there are lots of options out there. Because yes, our sex lives change and vary throughout our lives, just as our relationship to contraception does. And I think that’s great! I encourage you to learn about contraception, to discuss sexuality and to explore the different choices available to you so that you can find out which method suits you!
Having a choice is freedom!
