16.

I come from a "good catholic" family (6 kids).
Sex ed was non-existant at school, at home, and at church.

For a while, my oldest sibling, my brother, lived in Middlesex, New York, and whenever anyone asked my mom where he lived, she would whisper the name of the town. That's how off-limits talk of sex was.

The little bits I was able to pick up camee from my 4 older sisters, who were about as in the dark as I was, but older, so they had (and told me about) dating and sexual experiences before I had any.

I am grateful for that, because otherwise, I would have known LITERALLY nothing. But at no point did ANY of them mention anything to me about the existence of or the need for birth control.

Of course, most of what I heard from them was confusing and unclear, which was compounded by the fact that I had not yet figured out that I was a lesbian.

Our daughter will NOT grow up in ignorance of this topic. She turns 10 next month, and my wife and I plan to start "the talk" this year.