Fighting STDs The RIGHT Way March 12th, 2008

Today, I was reading CNN.com, and there second most popular story of the day had the saddest headline I had seen in a long time: 1 in 4 Teen teen girls has an STD. A recent study showed Nearly 3 million young women, aged 14-19, have a type of sexually transmitted disease, the most common being the human papillomavirus (HPV). Of course, the highest overall prevelance occured with black girls. The study noted that nearly half the blacks studied had at least once STD, compared with nearly 20% for whites and Mexican-Americans.

HPV is a genital infection which has been strongly linked to cervical cancer. Unfortunately, those infected with HPV rarely show symptons. In the few cases where symptons were found, the most common were genital warts. More facts about HPV, its causes and treatments can be found here on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s website. However, it is important to note the statistics; nearly 20 million Americans are currently infected, and over 6 million more are infected each year. Just consider: this number of new infections only represent the smart people who have actually gotten tested. The real number will probably never be known.

I recently had a talk with one of good female friends, and we agreed that the problem actually lies in sex education. I remember when I was in school, the rule of thumb was abstinance. Just don’t have sex, and you’ll have nothing to worry about. But that doesn’t work. Never has, never will. Teenagers, by definition, are curious. That’s the time to be rebellious and experimental. Lord knows I got all of my nonsense out between the ages of 13-17. And when I turned 18, I was in college, and lost a little bit more of my mind. But by the time I had entered college, I had a general idea of what I did and didn’t like.

Sexual education should move from abstaining from sex to talking more about safe sex. Parents should not be so naive as to think that telling there kids that they should wait until marriage is effective. Teens are going to want to know what everyone keeps telling them to wait for! Instead, emphasizing safe sex when the time arises, along with explaining the benefits of waiting, would be more effective for two reasons:

You can get your point across about the dangers of sex, without ignoring it by saying “just don’t do it!”
You show your teenage son or daughter that you trust their judgement and their ability to make the right decision. Teens aren’t as stupid as some people portray them to be, and if you let them make some decisions on their own, you’d be surprised at how often they make the right ones.

There might be religious conflicts with the idea of teaching safe sex instead of abstinence, but the number of STD infections is a clear indication that something is not working. But a combination of the two would be the best solution. Although teenagers are more than capable to take responsibility for their own actions, it’s about time adults take responsibility for supplying them with the information to make the right decisions.

Tags: Teen, STD, human papillomavirus, HPV, genital infection, cervical cancer, genital warts, college