Today it is no longer a novelty to hear that teenagers are having sex. However, while this “bedroom” activity may be fun, there are now ample reports indicating that rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in teenagers have skyrocketed. Current data reveal that nearly 25% of adolescent girls who have sex are infected with one of the four commonly sexually transmitted infections-namely gonorrhea, chlamydia, herpes and HIV (Kann et al, 2015). Nationally, the prevalence of STDs account for 50% of cases in people under the age of 25. While every ethnic and race has been known to be affected, African American youth are disproportionately affected. These data are not a surprise to professionals who are engaged in adolescent sexual health because the numbers have been slowly creeping up over the decades, despite national educational policies to counter the threat of STDs (Sales & DiClemente, 2016). All the STDs have a significant impact on sexual and reproductive health, if they are mot promptly diagnosed and treated. Although many preventive strategies have been implemented in all communities, the rates of STDs are still increasing (Madkour et al, 2016). Routine screening of all asymptomatic sexually active teens has been attempted but has not worked out. The reason is that the cost of such a screening program is prohibitively high and students and teenagers are often paranoid about their privacy and unwilling to participate (Llata et al, 2015). For over a decade, the rates of STDs in adolescents and teenagers have been rising in almost every city in the US. Thus, now researchers are asking two questions: 1) what is causing this rise in STDs? and 2) What can one do to counter it? In order to answer these two questions it is impor... ... middle of paper ... ...be transmitted to others and also result in legal problems. There is no one method that can deter sexual activity in teenagers. By teaching them about STDs, we also protect ourselves from these deadly infections. There is no one fool proof method of preventing sexual activity in teenager or adolescents –the current strategies are now geared towards reducing the number of STD cases and encourage safe sex among teenagers. However, it is also important to remember that health resources have a limit and one simply cannot go on providing condoms ad lib, if they are not going to be used. One has to accept the fact there there will always be a certain population that will remain noncompliant with behavior strategies or use of condoms. The name of the game is not to have zero sexual activity or no STDs among teenagers, but just safe sex with the least number of infections.
Since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began in the U.S. in the early 1980s the issue of sex education for American youth has had the attention of the nation. There are about 400,000 teen births every year in the U.S, with about 9 billion in associated public costs. STI contraction in general, as well as teen pregnancy, have put the subject even more so on the forefront of the nation’s leading issues. The approach and method for proper and effective sex education has been hotly debated. Some believe that teaching abstinence-only until marriage is the best method while others believe that a more comprehensive approach, which includes abstinence promotion as well as contraceptive information, is necessary. Abstinence-only program curriculums disregard medical ethics and scientific accuracy, and have been empirically proven to be ineffective; therefore, comprehensive sex education programs which are medically accurate, science-based and empirically proven should be the standard method of sex education for students/children in the U.S.
Students should be informed about more than just “don’t have sex” because eventually it is going to happen and they need to be educated on the proper way to handle the situations. Because students are mostly taught abstinence it has created the situation to where researchers find” Abstinence-only education, instead of reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, has made teenagers and young adults more vulnerable to ST...
...ished the danger factors of scamming through dating in the romance department as well as the security and privacy section.
As teenagers many of us don’t understand the importance of abstinence especially now that we have media influence and peer pressure but the truth is that being bullied and being grief stricken is not cool. Disadvantages of not practicing abstinence are transmission of diseases, such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, genital herpes and HIV/A...
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD’s), also known as venereal diseases (VD’s), are spread by sexual contact where certain germs travel from one person to another or by the exchange of body fluids. There is a pithy range of frequent STD’s, which include Syphilis, Chlamydia, Genital Herpes, Gonorrhea, and AIDS. Anyone who is sexually active can contract an STD and more than thirteen million people are contaminated every single year, three million of which are teenagers. In addition, there are common symptoms that are acquired by these STD’s and transmission may vary for each kind. Fortunately enough, ways to prevent STD’s are possible and there are treatments if an STD is contracted.
Kirby, Douglas. "Abstinence, Sex, And STD/HIV Education Programs For Teens: Their Impact On Sexual Behavior, Pregnancy, And Sexually Transmitted Disease." Annual Review Of Sex Research 18 (2007): 143-177. OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). Web. 1 Apr. 2013.
During the 1980s, efforts increased to alert the public to the dangers of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and unintended pregnancy, yet these problems have increased. Adolescents and young adults have been especially hard hit. Pregnancy and birth rates among teenagers are at their highest levels in two decades.
According to a 2000 poll done by the Centers for Disease Control, 48% of sexually transmitted diseases are accounted for in people between the ages of fifteen to twenty-four. It is also reported that teens are more likely than other age groups to have multiple sex partners and practice unsafe sex more often. The three most common diseases in teens are Chlamydia, human papillomavirus (HPV), and trichomoniasis. These diseases account for more than eighty-eight percent of new cases in this age group (Davidnow, 2004).
In today’s society having an abstinence-only education doesn’t lower the risk of adolescents becoming pregnant or catching sexually transmitted diseases, also known STD’s. Teaching abstinence as the only morally acceptable option is wrong. The only thing that will lower that risk is teaching sex education in public schools. Adolescents will become more aware of the risks and factors that come along with sexual intercourse at a young age. Bringing a sex ed course into public schools will set better knowledge into a student 's mind rather than telling them “having sex is bad, just say no”. What happens when the adolescent is ready and says yes?
Not surprisingly the lack of useful sexual information is one of the reasons of the spreading sex related diseases. According to The American Social Health Association (1998) each year there are near ten million of new cases of sexually transmitted diseases among the teenage...
Sexually Transmitted Diseases Sexually Transmitted Diseases STDs, a.k.a venereal diseases, infectious diseases passed from one person to another during sexual contact. STDs are the most common infections known. More than 12 million people in the United States, including 3 million teenagers, are infected with STDs every year. The United States has the highest STD rate in the world about one in ten Americans will contract an STD during his or her lifetime. People who do not know they are infected risk infecting their sexual partners and, in some cases, their unborn children. If left untreated, these diseases may cause pain or may destroy a woman's ability to have children. Some STDs can be cured with a single dose of antibiotics, but AIDS cannot be cured. Those most at risk for contracting STDs are people who have unprotected sex—without using a condom, people who have multiple partners, and people whose sex partners are drug users who share needles. Static’s show that Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 are most likely of catching STDs than older adults, because younger people usually have multiple sexual partners than an older person in a long-term relationship. Teenagers may be embarrassed to tell their sexual partners they are infected Teenagers may also be embarrassed or unable to seek medical attention for STDs. This means that they only more likely to pass the disease to other young people and have a greater risk of suffering the long-term consequences of untreated STDs. STDs are transmitted by infectious bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, and single-celled organisms called protozoa that live in warm, moist parts of the body, like the genital area, mouth, and throat. Most STDs are spread while having sex, but oral sex can also spread disease. Some STDs are passed from a mother to her child while pregnant, when the disease enters the baby's bloodstream, during childbirth as the baby passes through the birth canal, or after birth, when the baby drinks infected breast milk. AIDS can be transmitted by blood contact such as open wounds, between people who share infected needles or received through an injection of infected blood. Some people believe that STDs can be transmitted through shaking hands or other casual contact, or through contact with inanimate objects such as clothing or toilet seats, but they can’t. Chlamydeous, is from trachoma is bacterium, is the most commonly transmitted STD in the United States.
...s have come up false or misleading. Sexual Education teaches adolescents about sex, not try to demonize it like abstinence programs do. If sexual education was properly taught in all schools, teen pregnancy and STD rates would drop significantly.
The glamorous side of sex is everywhere; music, tv shows, movies and social media. To a mature adult, it is easy to ignore the sexual messages in those outlets. However, to a teenager, going through mental and physical changes and peer pressure, it is extremely easy to fall for what is shown to “cool.” Everyone has fallen for half truths to be cool in their teenage life. It just so happens that teen pregnancies and STDs are not one of those things that one can simply walk away from. Babies and STDs leave a lasting effect on everyone involved. The National Conference of State Legislatures states:
...tions and fifty percent of them were from young adults ages 15-24 (CDC). “Every year around nineteen million Americans get an STI infection and out of that nineteen million, nine million of them are young adults between the age 15 to 24” (STD Statistics). We want statistics like these to go down not stay the same or go up. They are not going to go down unless we do something about it. The more people getting viruses, the better chance our children are going to have sex with someone that has a virus and does not know it. There will be a domino effect passing viruses down from generation to generation if something does not change. It is a parent’s job to want the best for their children, education, health and knowing all about everything that can change their lives drastically. More sex education in schools could change the direction that people’s lives are heading.
Rates of sexually transmitted disease and teen pregnancy are higher in the United States than in any other domesticated country. Not surprising since American culture has brought sex to the forefront over the last few decades. The need for comprehensive sex education in schools can teach children that the romanticized relationships and sexual interactions in the media aren’t showing the whole story. For children with ...