If you’re anything like the Stix team, you’ve been binging Love is Blind (and deep in all the TikTok tea). While we love speculating about Trevor’s relationship status pre-pods and making bets on who makes it to the altar, there’s something giving us pause. 

Johnny and the birth control conversations. What the HECK is going on here. 

In case your waking life isn’t consumed by binging the greatest reality TV show of the decade, Love is Blind, let me catch you up (light spoilers ahead). Johnny is a 28 year old from Charlotte, who falls in love with our queen, Amy. 11 episodes in, there’s no doubt that they’re the best couple of the season. 

On the screen, they seem to be a great match but they face, seemingly, only one problem – contraception. Amy doesn’t want to be on hormonal birth control, a choice she is 100% entitled to make. There are many reasons that hormonal birth control isn’t a fit for some people; side effects, medical conditions, and just not wanting to alter your hormonal balance. (This writer, however, has loved her hormonal birth control for 15 years). 

But Johnny is confused. He, apparently, thought that all women are just on birth control and he continuously shares his anxiety about an unplanned pregnancy. On screen – they have important and honest conversations, about the burgeoning research around male oral contraception and the pros and cons of vasectomies. Johnny, we love you for doing the work.

But, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Johnny and Amy must have talked about condoms  (we’re just guessing this didn’t make the cut in the editor’s room). In a confessional, Amy hinted that Johnny doesn’t believe condoms are enough protection, even though they’re 98% effective if used correctly. Somebody get this man a banana, he needs some practice!

Unfortunately, Johnny’s complete and utter lack of understanding about the world of birth control is not an uncommon occurrence. Johnny is actually lucky to be the 1 in 4 Americans living in a state that requires comprehensive, medically accurate sex-ed. 

North Carolina’s Healthy Youth Act requires that students receive sex-ed that is medically accurate and includes content about human anatomy, reproduction, contraception, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and HIV. 

However, like many other states in the U.S., North Carolina places an emphasis on abstinence.In fact, North Carolina provides content guidelines, but how school districts implement their curriculum is up to them. This means that some districts can still teach abstinence-only approaches. 

Abstinence-only “sex-ed” typically leaves out crucial information about contraception, STI prevention, and reproductive health services. This does not work. Sorry Mom, but teens are having sex. According to the Guttmacher Institute, by age 19, seven in ten teens have had sex. By age 21, nearly nine in ten people have. Ignoring this fact doesn't make it go away; it just leaves teens ill-prepared to make informed decisions about their bodies, risking unintended pregnancies and STIs. 

All this to say, it might not be entirely Johnny (or the editors’) fault. Despite living in a state with seemingly good sex-ed requirements, he might have never learned about birth control. Johnny if you’re out there – we’ve got some of the best resources.