YonWhale, I was prescribed the pill too for my heavy periods, I had no idea what that hormone would do to my body. I bitterly regret it as the pill was responsible for the most horrendous periods of depression I ever had. I was suicidal at one point, thinking that I was just a horrible, nasty person that didn't deserve to walk on this earth. I stood in the middle of a road, right in front of an oncoming car which luckily swerved to avoid me, as did the next one before my then db grabbed me.
Those side effects are NOT discussed by the GP let alone a pharmacist. Do we really want our young girls, who are already susceptible to the hormones swirling around their bodies, to feel this way? After all the women I've spoken to who have had the same side effects whilst on the pill, this isn't just a small risk, this is quite a substantial risk.
Whereas condoms - no STIs, no side effects (apart from an allergy to rubber but now you can get non-allergy ones). So why on earth aren't they handed out free at pharmacists? Why does the government want to pump our young girls full of synthetic hormones?
And yes I remember being at that age and full of lust. I remember walking back home late at night once, hitching a lift and hoping that a man would stop whom I could have sex with. Yes, I was that bad. But thankfully I didn't. I would have argued that I was ready, that I was mature and whose business was it but mine? But now I shudder to think of all the situations I placed myself in that were potentially very dangerous. All because I didn't have control of these days when my hormones would rage around me.