Speaking ahead of the opening of a new fertility and female health centre in Co. Meath, co-owner Kay O’Dwyer and NaPro Fertility doctor Kirsty Chapman, who runs a clinic at the centre, said the education on female sexual health from a Catholic perspective is lacking in the current curriculum.
The St Brigid’s Centre of Female Health, Fertility and Sexuality Education officially opened on Saturday in Kells, Co. Meath. Speaking to The Irish Catholic before the opening, Dr Chapman said a priority for the centre is “teaching young girls about how their bodies work”, specifically about what a normal cycle looks like and what to expect from it.
Mrs O’Dwyer and Dr Chapman said education on women’s sexual health from a Catholic perspective is lacking, and that young girls should be taught that they are “made in the image of God.”
“We feel like the culture today is so much against that,” said Dr Chapman. “The culture of contraception is all about denying who we are as women, shutting down our cycles, and not really appreciating the way that we’ve been designed. And so that’s what we want to start with, with preteens and then teenagers.”
Mrs O’Dwyer, who co-owns St Brigid’s Centre with her husband, said the emphasis of the centre is on education. This includes classes on puberty and cycle-mapping, as well as on preparing for menopause and family planning. “Our ethos is to provide good Catholic health care…it’s life-affirming health care,” said the co-owner.
“Our hope is to go into schools and to run programs there teaching teens girls about their sexuality from a very Catholic perspective,” said Dr Chapman, “because we feel that at the minute maybe the current curriculum doesn’t do that.”
Dr Chapman remarked that education on female health has often come with a lot of shame, and that previous generations didn’t address cycles or sexuality. She said education on these subjects gives teens “autonomy of their body” and “enables them to advocate for their health.”
