Sexual Health (young people)

At your, you first get it done at your, well I did at my doctors by the nurse and yeah, you’d have to do different health checks, they would check your weight, your blood pressure, things like that and say you’d get it done either in your arm or in your bum or wherever there’s enough flesh for it because it’s quite a big needle and then you’re advised still not to have unprotected sex for a week after that and then, so they’d give you, and then when you get it done, they give you an a date for your next appointment which is usually; the injection lasts for twelve weeks but it’s usually at ten or eleven weeks your next date so that you’re, you’ve got enough time to arrange it without having a gap because then you have to do a pregnancy test and stuff if you have a gap, then you’re not, they assume you might not have been protected in that time so you have to overlap it and then when you go back, they do the same thing again, they do the different health checks, the blood pressure weight and stuff and just get the same thing done again.

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You said you had some information about sexual health for instance about safe sex, prevention of unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections?

I think infections aren't so, I mean pregnancy is a bigger worry than infections to a lot of teenagers and that's something that's not so widely spoken about, for me anyway.

When I was a teenager I think that pregnancy was the main issue rather than infections and I found myself with an infection once and I had to go and sort it out and I didn't really have a lot of support from you know, people to talk to, I didn't talk to my peers about it.

I felt like I'd been an idiot and it was just stupid of me for being lax you know, and since I've made sure that you know, there's absolutely no contact before the condom went on you know because you think well, the most important thing is to make sure that he doesn't ejaculate you know what I mean, and you can have as much contact then, and that's something I think that I wasn't really aware of as much, I was more concerned about not getting pregnant, you know at that stage, and then after that things changed.

When I turned, it must have been about 14 or 15 and I was very young I started with very, very painful periods. And they tried numerous methods to try and help me. First of all painkillers and finally they switched to trying me with the pill because they thought that would help. And what I found was that it was making me ill at night. So eventually at the age of 14, 15 they put me on the depo [Depo-Provera] injection which wasn’t widely spoken about when I was younger and not a lot of research had been done for it.

It was only when I turned 18 that research came out that suggested you might be susceptible to osteoporosis if you have it before 17. So that made me feel a bit nervous but I have to say I loved the injection because it stopped my periods completely which as a girl and anyone can relate to, it was great.
 

Well I know that when I drink alcohol and as a university student I drink a lot of alcohol and I know that when I go out and when I do drink and get drunk I will get forgetful and I will forget to take my pill if I took my pill in the evenings because I try and take them at the same time every day. And if I take my pill in the evenings and then I go out and get drunk what often happens is that I’ll get very drunk and I’ll end up being sick. And then I don’t think if it happens quick enough I was told that I wouldn’t have time to absorb the pill. So it would be as if I hadn’t taken it at all. So this was, this was a major concern of mine just in terms of if I drink alcohol and I do get sick will the pill still work but if it’s not fully in my system.

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You were sort of not using condoms or anything?

No I wasn't. I just had unprotected sex every now and again but it was with the same guy because I was still with him, but then we got a bit worried and I'm thinking oh no, what if I fall pregnant, what am I gonna do then. So that's when I went to the doctor and said 'Look seriously I need something.'  
Because I kept on going for the morning after pill. Most of the time I went for the morning after pill and they'd say "the morning after pill's not really good, you're not supposed to really take it more than three times in a year", and I did take it more than three times in a year, you know what I mean' Yeah seriously, I did.

That's when they said to me you know 'You seriously need to think about long term, contraception'. So then yeah that's when Depo came in to it.  Because like my GP, I've known her for a long time and she's been my childhood GP, she knew when I left home and everything so she knew she has to be there as an extra support for me as well to explain everything to me.

And then obviously you go to see the nurse for contraception and things like that, so she transferred me to a nurse who explained all the procedure to me.  

So like if I had a problem the first person I would go and see would be my GP because I can really, really trust her, she's like a friend to me, someone I can really openly talk to, so that's nice.

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Well I got it from my family planning clinic, basically they gave it to me because I was suffering really badly from thrush and whatever I did I just couldn't get rid of it. The doctor said that she had some success giving people Depo Provera to get rid of thrush and you know, she said I could try it, thankfully it did work, you know, it was great, it stopped me having periods as well which I was quite keen on. 

What I thought was quite interesting was alot of my friends thought it was silly not knowing when you're getting your period, because you couldn't be sure you weren't pregnant, but I quite liked it.

Do you feel that you have had sufficient information about contraception and at the right time for you?

Yeah , I mean I don't think I was ever left in the dark about it, I mean you do kind of learn things, don't you, but I didn't know about this Depo Provera, but if I had, I would probably gone and got changed onto that sooner

Well I mean if I'd known about Depo Provera I would of gone sooner to the family planning clinic but it's not really well known is it. I mean I don't think people know it can help with thrush, I would of gone sooner if I'd of known.

I did experience before Christmas some problems with stomach pain and erratic bleeding and I went back to the clinic and explained this to them and they said have I got a new partner?  And I was like, well no I've been with my fiance for about year so they were quite happy and '

They changed my injection, I went on the progesterone only injection. So I used to be on Depo and now I'm on Noristerat and '

Okay, and how long have you been on the new one?

I've been on the new one now, they put me on that shortly after I went back to the Family Planning clinic with my clear results. I went back and they suggested that I go on to the Noristerat so it's been for about 4 months now.

Do you have any health concerns about injections or the implant or? Because you talk about hormones and chemicals?

You started thinking about it after that incident with your sister?

With using the injection as a contraceptive, I would just say make sure that you are comfortable within yourself and you’re doing it for you and you understand the risks. It does have different effects on different people so you can’t go by someone else’s experience to judge whether you want to but if you are to try it, I would say probably have the breaks and not for long periods of time because that’s when obviously the worser side effects are more likely to have an affect but I don’t think it’s a bad form of contraception, in moderation. And for younger women, I think that maybe they should think even more about it especially like how I was fourteen to, in the, like when you’re developing and things like that. I don’t know exactly scientifically if it does have this effect or that effect but just knowing generally that any substance that’s not supposed to be there when you’re developing or have an effect on your body.

If you decided to become sexually active or if for some reason your doctor said that you need to go on contraception to regulate blood flow or to control your really bad skin or something then ask your doctor for all the potential options. Ask them for all the options that you can have be it the pill, the patch, there’s the injection, the IUD, all of them. Really find out about the options that are available to you because what someone tells you is usually only part of what is out there. And once someone tells you what is out there find out for yourself. Go online because it is completely anonymous. No one is going to know. Find out about these different things. Ask your friends. If you have a sister ask your sister, ask your cousins, you know, but just remember that you’re. I think it’s really hard for girls because you feel like you are alone and you’re not and you’re really, really not because I think there is a certain stigma attached to it if you go on contraception it means, ‘Oh well she is clearly spreading it around isn’t she’. Probably she is not, she’s probably trying to be safe and that is a good thing.

And if you are in a relationship talk to your boyfriend because that’s the person who should be supporting you when you do something like this You know and if you do have a really good stable loving relationship where there is mutual respect and trust have him go to the clinic with you. Have him go through the options with you like saying ‘Well I’m going to get this. Do you feel comfortable with that or would you prefer that I got this or I feel happy with this?’ You know like make it be a really collaborative process about what you are doing because at the end of the day it’s your body but if you are in a relationship with someone, you know.