Startling Sexual Behavior Facts
Researchers report that the majority of middle school students are not having sex however the small percentage who are may be as young as 12.
In a large U.S. urban public middle school researchers found that 12% of students had engaged in vaginal sex, 7.9% in oral sex and 6.5% in anal sex. Of that 12% two thirds were currently sexually active and 25% reported having four or more partners.
Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) focused on the four most common sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) – Chlamydia, genital herpes, human papillomavirus (HPV) and trichomonisas – and found that 1 in 4 teenage girls were infected with at least one of them.
Those are just the most common STDs/STIs. There’s also bacterial vaginosis, chancroid, gonorrhea, hepatitis (A, B, C), HIV/AIDS, molluscum contagiosum, pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), pubic lice (crabs), scabies, syphilis, yeast infection…scary.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) noted that sex education that includes information about abstinence and birth control is the most effective way to keep the teen pregnancy rate down.
On May 12 the school board in Willamina, Oregon voted 3 to 2 in favor of allowing the high school health clinic’s nurse practitioner to prescribe birth control pills. The district’s policy also authorizes the school nurse to provide condoms to students who ask for them.
The importance of talking to your kids openly about abstinence, birth control, pregnancy, STDs/STIs, etc., will help them to make wise choices and more than likely make them feel more comfortable in coming to you for advice. Whether you live in the country, a suburb or urban community this is a topic that affects everyone.
What’s your take on all this? Should it be the school educating and offering birth control options, the parents’ responsibility or both?
Source: CDC, KidsHealth.com, KPTV.com
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 4:25 pm and is filed under Health Room.
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September 22nd, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Yeast infections are not considered to be sexually transmitted infections (STI) because a celibate woman can develop them, but having unprotected sex can pass them along. A man who has unprotected sex with a woman who has an active yeast infection can get a penile yeast infection. Transmission of genital yeast infections from woman to man is uncommon, but it does happen.