...to be amazed by how little some women know about their bodies?

[Celebelly]

Just an idle thought while browsing Conceptions/Pregnancy forums. Every day there seems to be someone asking 'Could I be pregnant?' with seemingly no idea how their cycle works, when you can realistically get pregnant, etc etc. I really find it quite worrying that education is obviously failing women in this way and that all we seem to be taught is how to deal with periods and nothing else. I really find it astounding that so many women don't seem to understand how ovulation works and how conception takes place. It's not even for conception; it's really valuable for contraception too to understand how a menstrual cycle works. Some of the questions are really mind-boggling.

AIBU to wonder why so many women apparently don't know how their body works? And to wonder what can be done to fix it?

This discussion has reminded me of this bit in Mean Girls!

Well I went to repressed girls school who reluctantly taught conception as part of GCSE biology this plus a mother who never talked about things 'down there' it's no surprise I knew very little - even when I started having smear tests they would ask about my cycle and I'd be bemused. Much more in the know thanks to mumsnet - now trying to educate myself about the menopause.

After watching THAT orange is the new black episode I decided to see if any of my female friends didn't know about the wee hole......one of them didn't!!

When I got pregnant, I had no idea I had to "give birth" to the placenta. I was shocked when I read about it. And I considered myself pretty well informed...

My ex came out with the corker 'So if you've got a tampon in, do you have to take it out when you need to pee?'

I think I just looked at him, agog, for a good 30 seconds before spluttering, 'Do you think I pee through my vagina?!'

It's sex ed, as above. I was over 30 when I figured out that the few days a month when you are told as a 14yo you are "most fertile" are actually the only days you are fertile AT ALL.

I get why we lie to teenagers about this but it literally is lies, and that is kind of shocking.

Totally agree op. As a nurse I too had to often tell
Women that I wasn’t putting a catheter into their vagina!!! Mind boggling ignorance.

however I was utterly shocked that my teen dds when chatting had no idea about their general cycles, when pregnancy was more likely to
Occur and that the more sexual
Partners they had without condoms the more risk of cervical cancer.

We had a very long Chat.

My mil got pregnant at 17 and thought if she did it again while pregnant she would have twins They was 1959 but still

And how they choose to believe that what applies to 99% of the human race, does not apply to them.
FadedRed, you'd hate me lol, because a lot of the time it doesn't! Result of multiple medical conditions, but a lot of the time nurses especially will give me that knowing "mmm-hmm" look, then get a right shock when something doesn't go the way they expect, and I get to think "Told you...."
One thing which is bugging me on this thread, is people mentioning "up to 35 day cycles", when anything up to about 49-ish days is actually within the realms of "normal". They can also run a lot longer in women with PCOS, which is estimated at about 10% of the female population, and anywhere up to 25%.
I also hate the way it's explained, because a lot of women who run on say, 35 days end up thinking that a 28-day cycle means "28 days, then period" (as that's how they work) rather than "21 days, then period".

I don't blame anyone but the women themselves for their ignorance. I never got a talk about sex or even my period, I got a book about my period from my older sister...that's it. No sex education in school or education on the female anatomy.

I sought out the knowledge myself and this was before the internet was something most everyone has access to in first world countries. With the internet being the behemoth it is now though, there's just no excuse for being in the dark about your body. There are also the good old fashioned books still too. Knowledge really is power.

Haha I instantly thought of Mean Girls when I started reading this post.
I think it's just drummed into you at school that if you have unprotected sex you will get pregnant so that no one does it! Fast forward to TTC and a bit of a learning curve.

Joey My MIL was told if she went down the end of the garden and lifted the lawnmower after sex she couldn't get pregnant......this was 1950's....the mind boggles!

There was a legendary thread on handbag.com forums where someone owned up that they didn't know women had separate orifices for peeing and having sex.

I have just found out my Mirena needed changing over a year ago

I work in sexual health

When my dd started her periods my ex dh asked me "er ok so I have to buy these pads when she stays over etc. So er, does it happen at night?" I felt like saying no, women's periods clock off at 10pm and re-start at 7am! Idiot he is!

Dh and I thought that the morning after pill would not be required as my diaphragm had slipped (user error was tipsy), as we’d had sex in the last day of my period.

How the midwife did laugh at us.

When you need to know, you can find out. When you don’t need to know, it really doesn’t matter. I have a limited understanding of how breathing works and digestion, my heart, my brain to limb instructions...but I don’t need to know exactly how any of it works for it to work.

You only ‘found out’ because you needed to, so I don’t see why you seem so shocked that others have done/will do the same.

It irritates me when idiots say...but we only did it once!!! Grrr that's all it takes in some cases!

Breastfeeding is 98% effective as contraception in the first 6 months but only if you feed as nature intended, on demand, not bottles, no dummies. It’s not a myth.

And you could get pregnant before having your first period if it was in the month before the first period because you would ovulate before having a period.

I agree, and I would have counted myself in that number until recently. I had no idea about ovulation, when it happened, what happened, or the signs my body gave me to tell me it was happening, until I was 26.

We spend our whole lives trying not to get pregnant, then suddenly we want it to happen... I was confused why it wasn’t happening straight away like I was warned it would at school

I was recommended a book called ‘Taking Charge of Your Fertility’ which I would honestly in turn recommend to anyone - I’m going to make sure my future daughter has a copy as soon as she hits puberty! It explains how everything works really clearly and with examples.

I know I’m lucky to have a textbook 28 day cycle and that not everyone does, but I can now read my cycle like clockwork just using CM as a guide.

Tbh, I find it more amazing that people think/thought that what you have time to be told at school, and what is relevant to you at 14, is all there is to know and all you'll even want/need to know.

There is absolutely no point at all in telling a 14 year old about the increase in discharge you get around ovulation, for example, because they don't need to know.

It's no different to any other subject. School introduces you to it, opens the door and provides you with the skills necessary to enable you to learn more. It doesn't teach you everything you need to know about everything.

Why don’t they need to know NaturalWoman? I mean they’re not trying to get pregnant (hopefully), but it’s still pretty interesting and important. I think school is about preparing young people for adult life and understanding our biology is fundamental.

I think arming girls with knowledge about how their bodies work is empowering.

I don't disagree with you Reggaeton. It is interesting and important. However, you might think school is about preparing young people for adult life and that understanding our own biology is important but, unfortunately, the government does not share your view.

School's do what they can but, like I said, school provides pupils with the basic knowledge and then the skills to learn more for themselves.

Not only that but you are never going to cover every aspect of everything at school. The understanding and expectation is that pupils will be 'active learners' and supplement their own knowledge with research outside of school. And given that most people have access to the internet, this is now easier than ever.

And as for the "women have 3 holes" thing, I've never met a woman who didn't know this.

I've met men who didn't but then they used to segregate boys and girls for sex ed and the boys were never taught what the girls were.

That was also government policy and parental choice.

Having said that, I've witnessed some truly shocking sex ed in schools. But teachers can only teach what they themselves have been taught. And if a teacher doesn't know the difference betweena a vulva and a vagina, for example, she's not going to teach the children correctly.