A Commentary on Women's Health and Sexual Education for Adolescents

 This was originally published in Maeflowers on Medium Aug. 4, 2023

 

Women's Health Means Adolescents, Too

Preventing sexual health education leads to ignorance about bodies

This particular topic is one that seems academic but actually hits close to home. In this politically rife time of book banning and abstinence-only approaches to education crossing swords with hot-headed discussions about abortion, maternity care, and birth control, it seems we’ve completely lost the plot. Let me tell you a story…

Step back 30 years

Fifth grade was my first year in public school. I had gone to a small church-affiliated school up until that point. We had a very small library of approved books. I had advanced through the curricula for math and reading so I’d go to the older kids’ classrooms for those subjects. We had a full hour of “Religion” every morning and Chapel on Wednesdays. I had never heard of “Health class”. There were 3–5 kids in my class depending on which year it was. It seemed perfectly normal.

I transferred to public school and there were five classrooms of 20 kids each in my grade. We moved between remedial, normal, and gifted classrooms for different subjects and if you needed to be moved up or down you missed what you missed. It was chaotic and inefficient compared to where I had come from. But one day, early in that first semester, they divided the girls and boys into two different classrooms and gave a health presentation about our bodies. I learned about menstruation for the first time — I had my first period just a couple weeks later.

If it hadn’t been for that health presentation about my body in public school, I would’ve woken up one morning thinking I had been mauled in my sleep. As it was I was shocked that it was actually happening. How traumatic to not know what you’re own body is capable of!

I was staying at an older cousin’s house — so she had the supplies I needed and it was all normal to her. I thought I’d have to explain it to my mom because it had never been spoken of — instead she had a party waiting for me to welcome me to womanhood. I was mortified and so very very confused. If it’s such a huge thing, why didn’t I know about it?

The point

Too often we leave young people out of topics that affect them. Under a misguided attempt to shield some mythical concept of innocence, they are left vulnerable to fear, misinformation, and unintended consequences.

Everyone deserves to know about their body so they can make decisions about their health. Despite the stigma that sex ed introduces children to sex (a natural part of life they’re going to see, hear, talk about, and experience eventually anyway), such programs may be the only information an adolescent receives about a major event in their physiological (and psychological) development. Everyone should be armed with factual information about pain, bloating, mood swings, fertility, and cancer, among others.

Adolescents go through major changes, and sometimes they can lead to life-altering shifts. Menstruation should not be a mystical “welcome to womanhood” surprise. Pregnancy should not be a mystical “you’ll feel better once the baby comes” experience. Menopause should not be dismissed as the end of a woman’s worth or hysteria.

Just this year (2023), Washington, DC became the first education jurisdiction in the United States to have specific menstrual health education standards. The. First. Welcome to the 21st century.

Til death are you dismissed

It’s not just the young who are ignored. Last year, a clinician at the MayoClinic stepped up to start working on menopause awareness. Not only should women going through “the change” know what to expect and what needs a doctor’s keen eye, there are treatments to make the transition easier and help adjust risk. This is important not just for comfort, but for health and quality of life as the hormones that cause menstruation and menopause have varying associations with cancer. Birth control also plays a role in this risk, with newer versions (progesterone-based) offering protection against uterine cancer but potentially increasing breast cancer. Genetics likely plays a role, which means research is needed. But we’ve traditionally struggled to have female cohorts in studies, now we want them to focus on female-only disorders?! Yes, it’s going to be an uphill battle.

The North American Menopause Society can be a starting point for anyone looking for a doctor or treatment for their hormonal transition.

Sex ed is necessary

We need sex ed — the children need it. Right now, schools are the best way to reach a large swath of the population at the right age to ensure that puberty and its ramifications don’t surprise anyone. But I’d suggest classes in communities for adults as well. Maybe at hospitals, like the classes for expecting parents, only it’s basic anatomy and hygiene. “Human Body 101”. We all have a body, even as children. We need to learn how to live with it. Why it’s so shameful to recognize that is beyond me.

If you’re looking for more information, I highly recommend the books written by OB/GYN Dr. Jen Gunter, particularly The Vagina Bible and Menopause Manifesto.

Also see the statistics on the harm of abstinence-only education at the Guttmacher Institute and the School of Public Health at Columbia

What We Got Wrong with the U.S. COVID Response

Photo by CDC from Pexels

 

I have held an unpopular opinion since early in the coronavirus pandemic — the United States should have locked down completely. I have added more unpopular opinions on top of that in the past year and a half in criticism of the health agencies, both American and international. Though whether it’s unpopular really depends on the audience, as I know a lot of scientific and medical professionals would agree with me. 

With bad public messaging, unmitigated viral spread, lack of testing and quarantines, and inherent issues in the health care system, read my commentary at Medium on what the U.S. got wrong about COVID-19. 

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Dealing with the Minutiae of Covid

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

  Originally published at Medium in July 2020

By Alicia M Prater, PhD (Aliconia Publishing)

I can’t escape catching the headlines, and in my field of work this includes the latest scientific findings and the details of current medical concerns. So when a novel coronavirus started to make its way around the world, I noticed. When European countries started shutting down and Americans started dying, I noticed. When the timelines for my social media networks started to be obituary-heavy, I shut down and cried.

It was only April. 

The forgotten continent

Endemic disease, war, famine....we rarely hear about Africa's suffering and they don't get the outpouring of support they need. Remember Haiti after the earthquake? That's Africa every day.

Doctors without Borders has been in Africa since at least the 1970s. Recently one of their missions has included aiding villagers in South Sudan, who have been the victims of raids - dealing with gunshot wounds and burnt homes. Now the doctors are the victims.

The Doctors without Borders (Medecins sans Frontieres) South Sudan clinic was raided, looted, and burned, and many of their staff members killed.

It is a sad state of affairs when a doctor cannot help one who is in need for fear of his/her life. These fears are the results of ethnic-based warfare, tribes stealing each other's cattle and not worrying about collateral losses.
Poverty is an international issue and can affect the health and lives of an entire continent.

Australia declared measles-free

The past few years, the rate of measles infections in Australia have been less than 1 case per 1 million people. Writing in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, immunologists at the University of Sydney have cited this criteria for declaring Australia free of measles. They expect the status to hold to 2012, with the best case estimate of 20 years (i.e. 2029). The few cases of measles occurring since 2005 have been due to foreign travelers. Measles kills approximately a million people worldwide each year, affecting mainly children under the age of 10. The virus can cause miscarriages in pregnant women and deadly encephalitis in one-tenth of those infected. Currently, the United States has been suffering outbreaks (April and August 2008) due to a decrease in vaccine coverage among school-aged children - 20% of measles patients in the United States are hospitalized because of the illness, 3 of every 1000 measles patients die. 90% of unimmunized individuals who are exposed to measles contract the respiratory disease. Measles is prevented by the MMR (measles - mumps - rubella) vaccine given to young children between 12 and 15 months of age, with a follow-up dose 4 weeks later or before beginning school. Parents have been concerned over misinformation (The original study by Wakefield that began the investigation has been found to be fraudulent with fabricated data) regarding the use of the preservative thimerosal, a mercury-based chemical, in the MMR vaccine. Scientific evidence supported by legal decisions have shown that there is no connection between the vaccine and autism, a developmental disorder diagnosed around the age of 2, the same age when the vaccine is given.

Autism is more complicated than this

This is a waste of taxpayers money and the judicial system's time. Families argue autism-vaccine link in special U.S. court. Billions of dollars have been collected in excise taxes on vaccine doses, which should be removed to make the cost of vaccination less. No research has indicated that mercury is deposited in the brain by vaccines and no neurophysiological mechanisms have associated vaccines with autism. The link just isn't there. There is, however, a hereditary link with autism. I'm sorry, but these families need to admit that there's something more complex going on than a vaccine conspiracy. Like most things I urge moderation. Not everything should be vaccinated against. But now we're seeing a resurgence of deadly diseases we once had beat because of the lack of vaccination being promoted by those who keep arguing with the evidence. And currently, vaccines don't even contain the mercury-based preservative thimerasol that's under fire. And removing it did not decrease the rate of autism diagnosis, neither has a decreased vaccine compliance rate. Autism is a complex neurological disorder, that might not even be abnormal. It is deviant from what we define as normal. In recent years the definition and diagnosis has been expanded to include a spectrum of disorders that some doctors argue are not a disorder at all. However, there are many children and adults who live with a debilitating neurological condition. Court battles like this won't help. Money being diverted to real research on the matter and concentrating on giving their children a normal life will.