“Doing it” Isn’t Doing It

 

Imagine my surprise, when I opened up the Daily Lobo a few days ago and found this article: “’Period sex’ can relieve menstrual cramps and make showering more fun.’”

Come again- (no pun intended)? I had to read more to find out if this was a joke or not. What I learned is that the Daily Lobo, a paper written by students, for students, has organized a column that addresses all of our “sex questions” such as: safer anal sex, and the aforementioned how to have sex on your period. My issue with this is not the idea of helping students to have safer sexual encounters, but the content used to try to do that. In a state that has reported between 1990-2004 a teenage pregnancy rate of 23%; and being a state that is rated the fourth highest state in the country for teenage pregnancy rates between the ages of 15-19; I am fairly certain these girls are not getting pregnant through anal or period sex. Consider this; the Daily Lobo is a free paper. It is distributed not only on campus, but also in many local area shops and restaurants. This means that anyone, any age, can pick this paper up and see these articles. Ok, so the kids are having period sex- what’s the harm; what the article does not mention is that while seemingly safe and more pleasurable, it is also carries with it higher risk of transferring diseases like hepatitis, and H.I.V. There is also higher risk to the female in contracting yeast infections and bladder infections because of the location of the cervix during menstruation- this is briefly mentioned at the end of the article following the information that a woman can still get pregnant during menstruation; however, no mention of using a condom.

If we are going to leave our sexual safety in the hands of college students, perhaps we could leave it to the medical students? Instead of witty banter between “Isabel” and her boyfriend, maybe we could add the possible risks of sex- at any time of the month. Finally, if we insist on these types of articles, then let’s not leave the paper lying around in areas that kids of any age can pick them up. Then I have to explain what a “period” in “period sex” is to my son when I am still trying to get him to use them in sentences.