Olympia Valance says schools should teach more about fertility in sex-ed
Olympia Valance says schools need to be teaching students more about this one thing during sex-education. Experts agree it should be included in education.
Actor Olympia Valance has called for teens to learn more about infertility in school, as specialists say patients are coming to them thinking it is as easy as removing a condom and are shocked they are having issues.
Doctors and students have backed the calls made by Valance during a must-watch online panel discussion, called Fertility Unpacked, to do more to teach people about fertility issues and biological clocks in sex-education classes.
It will discuss the huge emotional and financial toll of IVF and provide useful tips and information on the latest medical research.
“I was so uneducated going through this process and I think growing up we’re often led to believe that conceiving is straightforward,” Valance says at one point.
She then reveals her sex-education class was taught by an art teacher.
“I remember in sex-ed all they ever talked about was if you have sex you will get pregnant, mind you I think my art teacher taught me that class,” she said.
So when I went for my first fertility appointment … I had no idea about the quality of eggs, the quantity of eggs and how they radically diminish in age.
“What they should be teaching in sex-ed is more about fertility and more about that freedom of freezing eggs at a younger age.”
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, which guides what is taught in schools nationally, confirmed it did not expressly mention fertility within the syllabus for any year level.
The Victorian Department of Education, which follows its own curriculum, also doesn’t mention it.
However the NSW Education Standards Authority said its teaching about fertility, pregnancy and sexual health was being strengthened in a new syllabus that would be taught in all state schools by 2027.
In the mandatory PDHPE subject, Year 9 and 10 students would be taught about factors that influence conception and the role of reproductive technology and fertility treatments.
But a spokesman warned schools could not do it all alone.
“While equipping the school-aged community with essential information relating to fertility and reproductive technology is vital … there are issues the education system cannot deal with alone,” a spokesman said.
“Fertility issues can be caused by a range of factors and at different points in people’s lives, and public access to information and awareness is paramount.”
President of the Australian Principals Federation Tina King also warned that if fertility education was brought to schools it had to be age-appropriate and carefully integrated.
“Overloading student’s too early risks confusion and community pushback,” she said.
“Fertility education, while important, risks straying beyond the professional scope and expertise of teachers and should be delivered by qualified experts in the field.”
However amid declining birthrates, Medical director and IVF specialist at City Fertility NSW, Devora Lieberman said the current contraception focus in sex-ed classes made kids think having a baby was as simple as removing a condom and there needed to be a balance.
“At the moment, sex education is all about contraception and birth control … it makes people think that getting pregnant is very easy,” she said.
“When it comes time, many adults I see are so shocked at how challenging it can be.”
Year 12 high school student, Hannah Tjangdjaja, 18, said she felt under-taught by the current curriculum.
“There’s a lot of misinformation online regarding fertility,” she said.
“If we were to learn about that in a safe place, like school, it would be very beneficial.”
Similarly Jessica Leung, 17, said she and her classmates would’ve benefited significantly from learning about fertility rates, alongside reproductive technology.
“If we want children in the future, we need to know how we could manage that,” she said.
“For people who struggle, it would be useful to understand how IVF would work.”
Schools, Community and Disability manager at Sexual Health Victoria, Anne Atcheson, said many children would ask about IVF as that was how they were born.
We had to shout out vagina and boobies in class - but I didn’t learn about my fertility
Taylor Penny reflects on her sex-education classes.
One in six couples now face infertility challenges, yet in school I learnt about consent, reproduction and anatomy, but nota word on how and when fertility declines.
Having graduated in 2022, I would have thought that what I learnt through sex education would have changed significantly to what my parents did.
Apparently not.
My sex-ed lacked in numerous ways.
I remember sitting awkwardly with both my female and male peers, who each laughed away their obvious discomfort.
Our year 10 PE teacher told us to shout different anatomy out loud, in hopes our embarrassment would just disappear.
“Penis,” “Vagina” and “Boobies” floated down the corridor to unsuspecting classes nearby.
Although amusing, these classes taught me very little.
Learning about reproduction and contraception, I thought a condom or some birth control would be the only thing to stop conception.
It turns out that things like infertility might play a part too.
We learnt so much about prevention but nothing about how hard conception could be.
As I age, I’m learning more about my body, things that school never taught me.
Concepts that could have easily been mentioned in my health classes but were completely ignored.
It was only recently that I learnt the eggs females are born with, stay with them for life, or that you get pregnant duringovulation.
Contraception and fertility education are just as important as each other.
This confusion has caused young adults, like myself, to have an almost invincible outlook on life, like kids will just popout whenever we want them.
Unfortunately, this just isn’t the case.
Originally published as Olympia Valance says schools should teach more about fertility in sex-ed
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