2. Let’s share our pills!
In the late 90s, I was a consultant/educator at a women’s health clinic in the northeastern United States. One day, a woman arrived with her two daughters, 15 and 16. The 16-year-old was already our patient and was on medication. The mother discovered the child was being intimate with her boyfriend and wanted her to be tested for STIs.
The proud mother told me she put her young daughter on the pill herself as soon as she found out she was “working.” When I asked the mother who had prescribed it, she looked at me like an idiot. She told me that when you’re on the pill, you take it until you get your period and then start a few days again after the bleeding stops. Her daughters are just “naturally in sync,” so they can share a pack of pills for a month.
Um. That’s not how it works. At all. The mother won’t listen to anything I have to say. The older sister seemed to understand completely – how to take the pills, that her mother was an idiot, and that her sister would be pregnant by Christmas. The little sister looked… as if she would be surprised at Christmas. Fortunately, the doctor examined the two girls separately, and each received their pill.
