to think all teenage girls should be given a financial incentive to use LARC

[twentypoundsover]

as the cost to the taxpayer of say £500 for every year they didn't get pregnant would be dwarfed by the social and economic cost for paying for the consequences of teenage pregnancy.

YABU - i didnt get pregnant as a teenager so I would have been paid for nothing?!? There is no money for this at the min. Agree that the amount of STDs would probably increase as there would be less precautions taken if pregnancy was out of the question - this would then cost the NHS more? false economy

Because of course, it's all about the girls. Let's pay them to stuff a bunch of artificial hormone crap in their bodies whilst they're still developing rather than invest in the future of young people. That'll solve so many problems. Not.

Well morality is the answer. Stigmatise illigitimate children. Open work houses. And pop the mothers in mental homes for the feeble witted.

ah, Good old Victorian values.

Or alternatively - teach them to respect themselves and their bodies. Not go out looking like hookers, to not get larruped on white lightening up the park and stop playing 'daisy'.

I went to a family planning clinic with my 15 year old DD and her friend, the girls there were all under 19. There was a two hour wait because of staffing isues, we were advised to come back on Tuesday, it was Thursday, perhaps better funding would also help, as no doubt, there would be some who 'take a chance'. Most of my DD's friends using contraceptive have tried the implant and it has caused to many problems so had to have it removed.

The research link poverty and lack of family support as lowering the 'outcome', it is conected to the mums age because, of course a young mum , generally isn't going to have earning power. There is also the issue of a lot of young mums lack of self esteem, which plays a part in why they want a baby in not the best circumstances, financial incentives are not going to remove this.

'family planning' for 15-y-os?

What about the girls who want to get pregnant? If you really want a baby, £500 isn't going to be enough to dissuade you.

All a financial incentive will do is pay the girls who wouldn't have got pregnant anyway, and increase the risk of STIs.

Depo-Provera made me really, really ill. £500 enticement would not have been enough to cover all the university time etc I lost through that little episode.

Imagine a scenario whereby a 15 yr old girl is paid £500 to have a contraceptive implant. Two weeks later, she decides she wants it taken out. She has spent the £500.

What happens then? Is she compelled to keep the implant in? Is she responsible for paying the money back? A 15 yr old accruing debt? Are her parents responsible for the money? What if they can't or won't pay?

Aside from the dodgy ethics of this wholly unreasonable proposal, you haven't really thought through the logistics.

Tethers does sound like something the government would up with though terrifyingly enough!

come up with drat.

This is utterly sick.

The one thing is that nobody has mentioned the real beneficiaries of such schemes: the drug companies who would in this scenario be flooding the bodies of a generation of young girls with artificial crap.

Thalidomide, anyone? Do we really trust profitmaking organisations to ensure this is safe? I don't.

Plus, are you seriously suggesting that minors - children, ffs - should be pressurised into making longterm health decisions with money? Er, and you don't think this might be a problem for vulnerable children in abusive and impoverished households? Because of course there are no parents or guardians who would encourage their young DDs to pump their bodies full of shit even if it wasn't good for them just to get £500, oh no.

Am quite disturbed anyone could even suggest this.

What about the boys? Do they get any incentives for not impregnating anyone?

Just pump the money into educating the girls (and boys) as to what its really like having a baby, none of the namby pamby stuff they get at the moment. I remember my teenage stepson looking at my timetable (had to do a 24/7 plan of my day for a course I was doing) and he was shocked to see how much of my time was spent doing things with or for DS1. better education in proper life skills would arm children to not feel that they need to have a baby, and will encourage their independence.

Setting aside all the reasons why this is a terrible idea, it also doesn't make any financial sense - there are maybe 2,600,000 girls aged 12-17 in the UK (based on 2001 census figures), of whom around 41,000 get pregnant each year. I imagine there are better ways to spend the £1.3 billion this would cost . . .

EDUCATION!

Throwing money away on stupidity and silly schemes gets us nowhere. Pumping money into a decent and proven education system whereby sex is normalised, not glamourised, would do a damn sight more to stop teenage pregnancy and infection rates.

Mind you, that would involve changing the entire mindset of a sexually fucked-up country.

Can't do that, can we? After all, we're British.

Not only teenage mums are responsible for the state of our economy.

I know several mums in their mid-late 30's who scrounge off the government and keep producing children so they can continue.

That would be unfair to the children of rich people who wouldn't be affected by it and thus would not be helped by it to avoid unwanted pregnancy.

That's the trouble with all financial incentives and fines etc. They only apply to people who are short of money.

Yuck, reminds me of getting your cat sterilised (OK I know the implant can come out!) because you can't trust them not be having it off with every tom cat in the area! Horrible idea! I would not be happy about pumping my developing teenage girl full of drugs/hormonesn on the off chance she may decide to have sex one day. It would also discourage the use of condoms which (used correctly) are the only way to stop STDs apart from abstinence of course!!! (maybe the government could give £500 pounds to any girl who is still a virgin on her 18th-JOKE!!!!).

No, financial incentives wouldn't work, and LARCs aren't suitable for all women. And they don't protect against STIs.

But, modern LARCs should be more widely publicised and considered at least as much as the contraceptive pill - apart from anything else they can put out lower levels of hormones than the pill as it's a stable dose rather than a once-a-day input that has to survive the digestive system.

The NHS isn't a profit-making system.

DD shall be getting an implanon for her birthday at whatever age she becomes sexually active but she will also be taught the importance of using condoms to prevent against sti's.

The way i see it, she has a baby then i too will be paying the price, she gets an sti its her that has to live with the consequence.

Financial incentives won't work, good access to family planning sexual health nurses would be a much better idea and better sex education and better prospects for young girls.

I think most young people - male and female - are actually fairly clued up about sex and contraception. As a proportion of the population teenage mothers make up a very, very small proportion indeed.

However, there is a increasing number of young men who refuse to wear a condom. That's way more serious than girls not taking artificial hormones because it nearly doubles the risk of STIs (male-to-female infection happens nearly twice as much as female-to-male) in addition to the obvious risk of pregnancy.
STIs tend to have more serious effects on women to - inflammatory pelvic disease and infertility to name but two.

How about incentivising more men to use condoms?

melons You can't assume that she will want or be compatible with Implanon, no matter how apparently tongue in cheek your coment is... LARC can be nasty, especially for young women whose hormones may not be 'settled'. Crumbs, I'm over 30 and mine still ping about like a flea on acid. Anything hormone based makes me feel unpleasant. I'd just go with the rest of your plans, and hope to hell that the education aspect works:)

Here we go again... The same arguments apply here as on the thread you no doubt started about the same topic last week. [yawn emoticon]

For the avoidance of doubt, YABU.

i think contraception clinics should be available in school, i Know teens shouldn't be having sex.....but if they are they need protecting from both pregnancy and STI