Monday, May 10, 2010

Five Things They Left Out of Health Class

There are a few things that seem to get left out of anatomy, health, or sex ed classes. Things that I learned much later, and wished I had known much earlier. So I'm just going to put them out there...

1) The Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) is not just for avoiding/achieving pregnancy. If you have irregular periods (or even regular ones) it can help you track exactly what is going on with your body from one day to the next, and help you predict--usually with very high accuracy--what day your next menstruation will begin. You don't have to be caught off guard. Ever.

2) A woman is only fertile a few days per cycle. It's also possible to track which days those are by using FAM. With that said, your body wants to get pregnant, even if you don't. It's wired for procreation. During the few days that you are fertile your body does multiple things to encourage pregnancy, including creating natural lubricants, opening the cervix, and having higher libido. So let me repeat, you are only fertile a few days per cycle, but typically your body is trying to beat the odds anyway.

3) Breastmilk doesn't come out of just one little hole--there are several tiny holes (5-10 in fact) on each breast. So if you go to shoot milk across the room (which often happens accidentally!) it may well look something like this ------>

4) Most girls are not symmetrical in their girlie parts. Since most of us don't look at anybody elses parts we don't know this, but yes it's normal. Most girls' breasts are not a 'matched pair' either.

5) At least one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage. It is almost certain that you or someone you love will miscarry. Be educated. Be sympathetic. Don't pretend it isn't there.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

With #2 being said... If seamen is introduced it can stay for a few days. So if you are in a family of "Fertile Myrtles" be aware of that...

Becky said...

Yes! Thank you!! Why don't people talk about this kind of thing? I mean, I'm all for looking things up and arming yourself with knowledge, but, really - these are important things to know. You'd think they'd come up before a girl turned twenty-three.

Mallory said...

That fountain statue cracks me up!!! I definitely wish that I had known these things at a younger age, too. I only took one health class while I was of high school age, and it was an online class. I don't feel like I learned anything much. I have been trying to hard to educate my younger sisters (aged 18 and 16) on a lot of this stuff, but they really don't seem all that interested! Shame.

Unknown said...

The only health class I took was in 8th grade I think... and I spent the whole class trying to spite the teacher I hated by doing NOTHING she wanted. Which in turn almost made me fail out of health class, HEALTH CLASS!

Yah, finally realized I really didn't want that teacher again (duh) and pulled my head out at the final, aced it, and BARELY passed by the skin of my teeth.

Needless to say, I too don't remember much besides despising the teacher!

Kate said...

I never took a sex ed class in high school. I did take an anatomy and physiology class, but besides the clinical these are the parts stuff I don't really remember any "useful" information.

Along similar lines as Aprillium above: I had a really good (male) friend in high school come to me one time and ask if it was possible for his girlfriend to get pregnant from sex during her period. He got a mini lesson on the female cycle (probably more than he truly wanted to know.) I'm glad he came to me with the question, but it just goes to show guys would benefit from basic info about a woman's cycle too.

Thomasin said...

I fully intend on teaching FAM to my daughter. It makes NO sense to me why schools (or doctors offices, for that matter) don't educate young women in these matters. It was eye-opening, when I realized I could follow my own cycle accurately.

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