How much actual evidence is there that this has anything to do with contraception? I'm getting old now, and from what I can tell contraception was just as available when I was a teen as it is now.
On top of that, the stigma around using the pill decreases all the time. Parents are willing to get the pill for their daughters.
There is more access for contraception for women. Sadly no real changes for men. Although now you buy condoms online which reduces the stigma many young people have about buying them in person.
From the email:
> A key goal for the first Vasalgel studies, in addition to demonstrating the contraceptive's safety and effectiveness, was to establish its reversibility. Vasalgel was reversible after a year in rabbits, but as we've reported, reversibility has so far been elusive in large-animal studies.
> We suspect we simply haven't found a suitable large-animal model; for example the baboon vas deferens is smaller and more fragile than that of the human. We're cautiously optimistic that everything will be much easier in human trials, because the human vas is larger and sturdier. And we're hard at work trying some other things too. But in the meantime, the first clinical trial will be designed to include just men who aren't counting on reversibility, while we sort out those issues.
> Thousands of people would like to be in the first trial, but there are only a few spots. And the researcher will have to pick local men who are the best candidates and want vasectomy anyway. So we're trying to keep everybody's focus on the ultimate prize: getting Vasalgel to market, with availability to ALL. If trials go well, then the sky's the limit: we'll seek approvals to bring Vasalgel to market, starting in the U.S., E.U., and Canada... and expanding from there.
Mail order condoms was common long before the web was popularized.
I didn't get my first checking account (and bank card, which only worked in ATMs) until I attained legal majority and started my first adult job, but that was quite a few years ago now. I would be entirely unsurprised to learn that many, many teenagers today have bank accounts and debit cards of their own, even if it's only their allowance that gets deposited there.
You would be surprised how many 5 year children make one-click purchases on their parents account. Suddenly all their favorite toys begin to appear magically at the door.
Better than a box from "Condoms R Us", or a generic box, which will still require explaination. An amazon box requires no extra explaination
http://www.nhs.uk/Service-Search/Free%20condoms/LocationSear...
Teens could get a range of contraception, for free, often without their parent's knowledge.
The rules about whether a child has capacity to make their own decisions around medical procedures - Gillick Competency - is named after Victoria Gillick, who didn't children to be prescribe contraceptive pill without the parent's knowledge.
But I am also confused how there are/were actually sexually active teenagers who think things like "Ziploc bags are as effective as condoms". Maybe the trickle down effect of decent Sex Ed was responsible for dispelling these kinds of beliefs before we were at the sexually active age. I certainly didn't know anyone who thought (or at least expressed) an opinion this ignorant in high school. If nothing else, having sex through a Ziploc bag sounds miserably uncomfortable.
But then, I did know a guy in college who apparently thought the condom was supposed to be stretched over the scrotum, so this ignorance is out there (or at least was).
I had many stupid friends in high school :). But the schools were not highly rated as well. I do remember many new mothers in my 11th and 12th grade years and also a few who were pregnant during the graduation ceremony. So I don't think they did a good job but I don't know how much school education helps compared to at home education in regards to sex ed.
Oops.
It's like they went out of their way to spread misinformation.
I'm not as on top of modern psychology as I'd like to be, so I'd love to see a formal study on the subject, but I'm pretty confident that most people's decisions are guided by the belief (subconscious or otherwise) that the end justifies the means.
Of course there are also some really stupid people out there. One of my earliest memories is of debating my elementary science teacher, who insisted that NASA had a room with perfect vacuum for gravity free training (her position being that air pressure and gravity were the same thing).
> It's like they went out of their way to spread misinformation.
Imagine that.
Well, there was that one case...
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/2010/02/01/ncbi-...
So did I, and so am I. Ours consisted mainly in a full-color slideshow of various genitals horribly mutilated by unchecked venereal disease, with absolutely nothing held back. Granted, as teenagers, most of us found it as fascinating as we did appalling, and I can attest to the fact that it did little to discourage our burgeoning interest in sexual activity. But it wasn't what you would call useful.
That's the big reason that, if it is mentioned at all in an educational context, it's to tell people not to do it, and play up the dangers. Scare the kids (who are at higher risk of the method failing) into no using it. Obviously, there are much better methods of birth control, but the withdrawal method gets a lot more flak than it deserves, IMO
"street pharmacist"
Without wanting to be too crude, he told me that partly the reduction in teen pregnancy is down to the prevalence of porn and how it ends in a facial rather than a vaginal ejaculation.
Especially about their sex lives.