OBGYN Reacts: Why 1960s Sex Ed Was Actually Insane...

TL;DR

An OBGYN reviews the first widely-shown 1960s sex ed film, correcting medical inaccuracies and highlighting dangerous omissions that caused lasting harm.

Key Points

• 1.The 1960s film was supposedly the first sex ed video shown to seventh graders (age 12-13) across the US starting in the early 1960s. The OBGYN finds it mostly accurate but dangerously incomplete.
• 2.Girls' earlier maturity is both biological and socially constructed. Sexual maturity starting earlier in girls is compounded by socialization pressures to be 'quiet and calm,' which the OBGYN identifies as a driver of misogyny.
• 3.The film oversimplifies puberty hormones to 'one hormone' and vaguely describes menstruation as 'a little blood.' The OBGYN warns this would leave girls unprepared for real periods, potentially thinking they were dying.
• 4.The placenta doesn't supply nutrition until around 9 weeks gestation. Before that, HCG (what pregnancy tests detect) and progesterone from the corpus luteum maintain the pregnancy after implantation.
• 5.The film's omission of how sperm meets egg is dangerously vague. The OBGYN notes she has delivered babies from 13-year-olds, emphasizing that vague sex ed creates fear and unintended pregnancies.
• 6.Multiple sperm fertilizing one egg causes molar pregnancies, not twins. A partial mole creates a triploid (69 chromosomes), while a complete mole has only paternal DNA; complete moles have ~15% risk of developing into gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (cancer).
• 7.Shame-based or incomplete sex ed has lasting clinical consequences. The OBGYN regularly sees patients who avoid reproductive healthcare because the topic was taboo growing up, which is why she endorsed Zocdoc as a frictionless way to access care.