Debunking sexual myths
BATHING or showering after sex is an effective form of contraception, and the "withdrawal method" is a sure bet when wanting to avoid pregnancy -- shockingly, that's what most of our sexually active youth believe.
Most of them are not very familiar with the different contraceptive options available, and were reported to be part of the group that viewed contraception preparation to be "not so important" compared with other countries within the region.
These results were revealed by the "Contraception: Whose responsibility is it anyway?" survey, which was carried out between April and May last year.
During the survey, a total of 5,253 interviews were conducted among 5,000 young people aged between 15 and 24 across Asia Pacific, Europe, North America and Latin America. In Malaysia, 200 youths aged between 18 and 21 participated.
The survey was supported by a coalition of 10 international organisations with an interest in sexual health and the Youth Task Force, a group of young people from around the world.
The results highlighted a significant disconnect between young people's attitudes to accepting responsibility for contraception.
Prof Dr Jamiyah Hassan, an obstetrics and gynaecology senior consultant at University Malaya Medical Centre, believes that many Malaysian youth are misguided because of various myths surrounding the topic.
"Most of the youth I have seen who've had unplanned pregnancy are very naive about the outcome of unprotected sex, especially females. There's a lot of myths and pressure from peers to conform to a certain behaviour, which is deemed to be the 'norm'.
"For instance, some youngsters believe that showering after sex will prevent pregnancy. This is completely false as good sperms will reach the uterine cavity within minutes and all you need is one sperm to fertilise the ovum to get pregnant.
"There are some other common myths that I've heard throughout the years, like having sex one week before mid-cycle -- the 'safe' period -- will avoid pregnancy. This theory is also unfounded.
"Another myth is that if you douche immediately after sex, you'll avoid pregnancy. Of course, this is false as sperms are very smart, they swim much, much faster.
"Some youths also believe that if you have sex while the woman stands up, the sperm does not swim up. Let's clear this up; the sperm swims up through the secretions in the vagina and also the seminal fluid. Some ejaculation may trickle out from the vagina but again, many millions would have already swam up.
"Heavy petting, ejaculating out of the vagina or with underwear on will not keep pregnancy at bay. I have seen pregnancy in young girls who've had heavy petting but no penetration at all."
She said our society definitely had a problem with this matter and would need to increase awareness of reproductive health, especially contraception.
"Despite the fact that almost 80 per cent of respondents from this region believe they are responsible for contraception, it is worrying that 47 per cent of sexually active young people admit to having had sex without contraception.
"I believe this contradictory behaviour stems from a psychological concept known as 'personal fable', which proposes that teenagers believe that they are special and unique and that nothing bad will happen to them.
"This explains why teenagers are often focused on the present, with little consideration of the long-term consequences of their behaviour, future plans and personal values. Teenagers may think that having sex without contraception is fine because the consequences 'will never happen to me'," said Charis Wong, counselling psychologist and US licensed marriage and family therapist associate.
Federation of Reproductive Health Association's family planning and reproductive health officer Kalpana Devi Rajantran said that it was worrying that more and more youth were seeking advice on abortions.
"One just has to look at the situation and realise that our society is facing a problem which is getting worse. In my opinion, kids are getting involved in sexual acts at a much younger age than before, and they are seeking help to terminate pregnancy because they can't handle it.
"Many of them are misguided by their own peers who feed them wrong information about contraception. Many find themselves in a fix when they get pregnant and aren't able to get help.
"Youth need to know that there isn't a 100 per cent foolproof method of contraception. Although condoms are the safest options, if you don't use it properly and consistently, you might get pregnant."
Tania Boler of Marie Stopes International, an NGO supporter of World Contraception Day, said: "What is clear from this new data is that much work still needs to be done about the number of young people using contraception, especially if we want to reduce the number of adolescent unwanted pregnancies by 2015, which is an indicator for Millennium Development Goal 5 - improve maternal health."
Read more: Debunking sexual myths http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/05avcon-2/Article#ixzz1P365TncO
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