Patient of the Day
Last week, I saw a girl in the office. She was young, 14 or so, and had come in for her first pap test. She had been recently started on the birth control pill, and had the same boyfriend for 3 months (apparently an eternity when you're 14 years old). We had the talk about safe sex, and the obligatory "the pill doesn't protect you from STD's" talk. I did the physical, I did the pap. Pretty uneventful.
Her results came in today. She has chlamydia.
I am horrified by this. All of it. I can't believe that a 14-year-old is having sex. I am stunned that she has an STD. I was further blown away by her admission that 'she has a little weed on weekends'.
Apparently, I grew up in a bubble.
Labels: family medicine
posted by Couz at 8:59 PM
12 Comments:
They just get younger and younger... It's so sad.
11:41 PM
Get used to it, Dr Couz! I hate to be harsh, but it's the reality of family medicine.
I saw a 14 year old girl, first visit, no period for 5 months. Mother brought her in. Asking me, "Please doctor, her breasts are leaking, she's had no period. What's wrong with her?"
You don't need to be a doctor to know where this is going. The girl was 5 months pregnant!! Worst hour (yup, I spent an hour with them) of my life. Just awful.
But I have to wonder --- where the heck were you in all this, mom? How could you have missed that?
Sad thing is that they never came back. I don't know what happened to them. It's hard getting used to that as well.
-Mimi-
navigating thru the world of family medicine, one patient at a time
12:42 PM
Mimi beat me to it. I was going to say, "well, at least she wasn't pregnant."
I grew up in the same bubble as you. This stuff horrifies me!
6:19 PM
i think i grew up in that bubble with you.
i work in a junior high school right now and pregnancy scares and stds and gangs and violence and abuse and drugs and drinking it's all regular routine now.
one junior high i worked at 'blow job' contests were common. whoever could give the most guys head during lunch hour won. what a great contest, huh?
12:11 AM
Dios Mio! Kids today! I tells ya...
6:22 PM
working in the arctic, you see a lot of this, but it doesn't make it any easier. i liked the bubble i grew up in.
dkflygirl
9:52 AM
I had high school students at the girls school where I taught admit to intercourse at 13, other sexual practices before that. It's hard to imagine, as they're so very young for all of that, but it's what's happening. Often, drugs of some kind are involved, and the boyfriend is usually older. Heck, my seniors were often dating guys in their mid-twenties. So many things wrong with that . . .
12:40 PM
Well I can believe it. I was one of those kids. No bubble for me. My first time having sex I was 11 years old and he was 18. I thought I knew what I was doing. Then I started a long relationship with some other guy (lasted 5 years), got pregnant when I wa 14 and didn't think anything of it because my menstrual cycle was and is irregular. I could and can be 6 months without it. But that time it wasn't that, I was 16 weeks pregnant and by the time I found out the truth I was 20 weeks pregnant. The limit for abortions. I was in the hospital 3 days, had to delivery like a full term pregnancy.
My parents had no clue. I was having sex in the house while they were there. They never knew a damn thing. And you know if I would have found out a few weeks earlier they would have never known about the pregnancy either. Law states parents do not have to know for children older than 14 years old. Only reason I had to tell them is I had to stay at the hospital overnight.
You better believe I am going to be in the same room as my kids. If I have to stalk them when they leave the house, so be it.
2:11 PM
Where I work it's common to see them come in on the "family plan". The fifteen year old girl will be brought in to be checked for an STD and/or pregnancy by her 45 year old grandmother. Do the math. It's a cultural thing in the city and as far as they're concerned there's nothing wrong with it.
12:38 PM
god 13 I though boys were gross.
I fear the day my children start. I'm not looking forward to the sex talks either, but if I wait till there 13 (when I had my sex talk) all could be lost by then
2:42 AM
Well, don't all doctors grow up in bubbles? Isn't that how you are able to become doctors?
Sounds pretty normal to me. I'm 29 and very middle class and university educated (no Dr. though)and having sex at that age and doing drugs was very common in my day!
I started smoking at 12, having sex at 15, drinking,smoking weed and dropping acid at 16. And turned out fine and work as a professional in my field.
Kids now do coke and meth though which is a bit scarier.
But really, were you born in the 50's?
12:54 AM
You're not alone in your bubble. I'm from the southern US, and It's still hard for me to imagine kids younger than 17 or 18 having sex. I remember when we had a sex ed class in seventh grade (I was 13), and I felt too young for that, I remember thinking that it would be years and years before I'd even want to kiss a guy, much less have sex with him.
Another good reason not to be a parent. I think I'll stick with my cats. ;)
8:46 PM
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