The Love Doctor

Dear Love Doctor,

I’m 16 and my girlfriend is 15. She told me yesterday that she was pregnant. We don’t know how that happened. I always have been using a condom. She isn’t on the pill because she doesn’t want her parents to know we are sexually involved. Like, I love her so much, but What should I do? She still doesn’t want to tell her parents, and I think she should. I don’t see how she can hide this from her parents. I told her that I need to tell my parents and she doesn’t want me to. She just wants to have an abortion. I don’t know how I feel about that but I do know that neither she or I is ready for marriage. We are both still in school and we don’t want to ruin our lives. Doc, I am so scared and don’t know what to do. Can you help me?

Signed,

Not ready

Dear Not,

Wow! This is quite the dilemma for a teen to have. First of all I will tell you that condoms alone are like 99% effective. Sounds good, right? Think of it this way, one time out of every 100 times you have sex, the condom will fail and your little swimmers will get through. So, in the future, condoms as well as a spermicide will better your odds.

So moving onto your dilemma. She MUST tell her parents. They should know. If she’s afraid they will boot her out of the house, she needs to take that chance. Most likely they will be furious at first at hearing this news, but cooler heads will prevail and they will help come up with a solution, like abortion, adoption or maybe even keeping the baby. It is important that you are with her when she tells her parents, you are just gonna have to man-up. It will show her parents that you are supporting their daughter and that you are not going to run away. So in the end, I don’t really have much more that this to offer. Just be there for your girlfriend. It is certainly not a great situation to be in, but you will get thru this. Just be strong and again, be there for her.

You understand? I hope so.

Hope this helps,

The Love Doctor

--Send your questions about love to "The Love Doctor" directly from 'OZ' - The 'Other' Side of the Rainbow! I have added an email link that goes direct to The Love Doctor - this will enable quicker responses from him. You can do this by clicking on his picture in the sidebar and put your question in the email. This will ensure that The Love Doctor gets your question. The Love Doctor forwards his replies to me for posting consideration. Note: Due to the high volume of letters that The Love Doctor receives, not all letters will be posted on 'OZ' - but the Love Doctor will reply to every email. (so he says)