Comment by magic_beans | Hacker News Reader

Comment by magic_beans | Hacker News Reader

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Instead of trying to prevent daughters from having sex, parents need to educate their daughters on fertility cycles.

Women are only fertile for a limited amount of time during each cycle. Sympto-thermal fertility tracking methods, as described in the book "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" by Toni Weschler, empower women to understand exactly when in their cycles they are fertile.

Understanding your personal cycle of fertility means you can accurately predict your period, understand precisely when you have ovulated, know when you are fertile and infertile in your cycle, and avoid the side effects of hormonal birth control.

I have personally used sympto-thermal fertility tracking as my exclusive method of birth control within a relationship for 2 years.

Of course this works, but most people who want to prepare their teenagers for the consequences of a sex life will push for condoms and possibly additional birth control.

Pregnancy is just one consequence, obviously.

Culturally, a lot of people still would rather use tactics intended (with whatever level of efficacy) to prevent teenagers from being sexually active altogether.

This method, while effective, is likely to be a significant frustration for the woman in this situation, given that cyclical high fertility usually coincides with high sex drive.

On fertile days you use a condom. Simple as that.

>I have personally used sympto-thermal fertility tracking as my exclusive method of birth control within a relationship for 2 years.

Are you sure neither of you is sterile?

This is all true but unfortunately in our society we seem to have decided that no one could possibly be responsible enough to follow such a self-monitored schedule and instead the responsible thing to do is just tell people it doesn't work.

Like our gov and the WHO telling us not to wear masks recently.

Most women in my experience are pretty regular and you can trivially avoid having sex for an exta few days out of the month. Coupled with "external finishes" i have a feeling this is actually a valid method of birth control for responsible couples.

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