Hey ladies!

I’m a senior in high school and I’m 17 years old. I am in a year long relationship and we’ve been sexually active for about 6 months. As of now, the only form of protection we use are condoms but I want to get on a better, more reliable method of birth control. I am too forgetful to take a pill at the same time every single day (although I could probably make it routine if I REALLY tried) so I’d like to get an IUD. However, I need to do this without my parents knowing and I’m wondering what is the best way to go about it. I have United Healthcare insurance and the non-hormonal IUDs would be covered but it’s just a matter of scheduling the appointment to get my prescription and scheduling the appointment to get it inserted without my parents knowledge. It is super difficult because I have a tracker in my car so they can see where and when I go to places.

I want to be honest with my parents and I feel like my parents would be happy that I am trying to be more safe but I feel like they wouldn’t support me and my decision to be sexually active. They’ll see me getting birth control as an excuse of mine to just have more sex when in reality, I just want to be safe. Is/did anyone else struggle with the same thing? If so, what is the best advice you can offer? Thank you so much!