Nearly half of teenagers are concerned about having children in the future and many do not feel they are being taught enough about reproductive health, researchers have found.It comes as researchers from University College London suggest that the entire relationships and sex education curriculum should be updated to tackle parenthood fears.
Students who did not want children in the future cited the “turbulent state of the world”, concerns about parenthood, and negative associations with pregnancy and childbirth, researchers found. But the second study, published in Health Education Journal, suggested there are still gaps in young people’s education – and that a number of teenagers are not being taught about key reproductive issues such as endometriosis, infertility and the impact of lifestyle on fertility.Nearly two in three students rated the sex education they had received as adequate or below, and nearly half said they did not know when a woman was most fertile.