Reproductive Health In Middle Adulthood

Studies show that the national average for an adolescent’s first sexual intercourse encounter is seventeen years old. Despite this number being very close to the average age in other industrialized countries, the United States holds a higher percentage of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease (STD) contraction than those countries (Harper et al, 2010, p. 125). It’s becoming evident that while a majority of the nation’s youth is sexually active, they are not doing so with the appropriate knowledge to keep themselves and others healthy.

The main concern in this topic is how to minimize and possibly eliminate teenage pregnancies. . One of every 10 girls in the United States gets pregnant each year (Kasun Jacqueline, 1994). Both sides believe that this statistic should go down and no teenager should be getting pregnant before they are ready to have or support children. While opposers may argue that introducing condom use to children early in their lives may be encouraging teenage sex and consequently teenage pregnancies, they must also embrace the changing times and acknowledge that in this day and age, they are bombarded with all forms of information, both positive and negative. Therefore, they are compelled to at least provide them with reliable information on this subject that will allow them to make wise and informed decisions in matters of their sex lives. If they do not do so, they are exposing them to an even greater danger of misinformation which is more dangerous than the first option. Opposers must realize that when they do not provide teenagers

They see the overwhelming importance given to sexual attractiveness in the media-one study estimated that the average teenager ahs witnessed nearly 14,000 sexual encounters on television- yet they also hear their parents and religious advisers telling them that sex is wrong. As a result, many young people begin having sex without really intending to and without taking precautions against pregnancy.

Master of Professional Health Debra Hauser states that sexual education is an essential part of the development and growth of teenagers. In her article “Youth Health and Rights in Sex Education”, MPH Hauser provides a report of teenage pregnancies and STDs incidences, which points out that each year in the United States, about 750,000 teens become pregnant, with up to 82 percent of those pregnancies being unintended. Young people ages 15-24 account for 25 percent of all new HIV infections in the U.S (Hauser). According to Hauser, “sex education teaches young people the skills they need to protect themselves”, such as the ability to recognize patterns of a toxic relationships, learning to value and have control over their bodies, understanding

According to studies there has been an increase of unprotected intercourse in adolescents that leads to sexually transmitted diseases, psychological disorders, and the use of substance abuse (Jemmott, Fong, G. T. (2005)). Adolescents typically go to the use of drugs to throw away the feelings they encounter in everyday situations. Studies also show that most adolescents that involve their selves in intercourse at an early age will have a larger number of sexual partners, and use condoms less often when engaged in intercourse.

Risky sexual and reproductive behavior associated with teen pregnancy often leads to disadvantage personal and social conditions. Research suggests that health education, contraceptive use, access to health care and outreach programs are effective in improving health conditions and reducing risky behavior. Omissions in the research on sexual behavior other than intercourse are highlighted. Possible biological, social, and social cognitive processes underlying teenage sexual behavior are then considered. Next, demographic trends in the use of contraceptives and antecedents of regular birth control use are reviewed. Finally, some of the successful program initiatives directed toward altering sexual and contraceptive practices are discussed, keeping

This is a salient issue because there are severe social and economic costs to high teenage birth and STD rates. The well-documented social costs concern the well-being of those involved with the situation. Teenage girls who have given birth are less likely to finish high school, and are more likely to have larger families and live in poverty as adults than those who have delayed childbirth for several years (Kearney and Levine, 2015, p. 158). The children born to mothers aged 15-17 tend to have more behavioral problems, lower cognitive development, and poorer educational outcomes than children born to mothers who were 18 or over at the time of birth. They are also more likely to be incarcerated or become teenage parents themselves (Kirby, 2008, p. 144). There are also significant costs for those living with STDs. People who have STDs are at an increased risk for reproductive problems such as ectopic pregnancies, infertility, and other health problems. They are also significantly more likely to become infected with one of the more dangerous STDs, HIV, which ultimately leads to AIDS and, later, death (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014, p.

While parents would like their children to wait as long as possible to begin having sex, the reality is that teens are having sex much younger than many parents think. Some teens, or preteens, begin having sex or engaging in sexual behavior in junior high. By the time they are seniors in high school, an estimated 65 percent of teens have had sex, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2007. (Dawn, 2009). Unfortunately, a percentage of those teens will become pregnant. After more than a decade and a half of decline (a 27 percent drop from 1991 to 2000), teen birth rates rose again in 2006, which was the last year for which data are available. It is still unclear on what caused teen birth rates to rise again, with supporters of abstinence-only sex education programs and contraception-based programs each blaming the other side for the increase. However, a 2007 study in the Journal of American Public Health attributed the trend in decreasing pregnancy rates to improved contraception use among teens during that time. (Anderson Orr, 2009).

Statistics from recent studies suggest that only 13% of U.S. teens have ever had sex by the age of 15. But by the age of 19, seven in ten teens of both sexes have had sex. Between 1995 and 2006-2008, the percentage of teens aged 15-17 who had ever engaged in sexual intercourse declined from 38% to 28%. Among teens aged 18-19, it declined from 68% in 1995 to 60% in 2006-2008. The pregnancy rate among young women has declined steadily from 117 pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15-19 in 1990 to 70 per 1,000 in 2005. However in 2006, the rate increased for the first time in more than a decade, rising to

Scott, M. E., Wildsmith, E., Welti, K., Ryan, S., Schelar, E. and Steward-Streng, N. R. (2011), Risky Adolescent Sexual Behaviors and Reproductive Health in Young Adulthood. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 43: 110–118. doi: 10.1363/4311011

“Among American adolescent girls who have ever had intercourse, approximately one in six becomes pregnant” (Ventura et al., 2008). Teen pregnancy is an ongoing dilemma that concerns the baby, parents, and other family members. Anyone under the age of eighteen years old is considered to be a child and every year approximately 750,000 women aged fifteen to eighteen become pregnant (Guttmacher Institute, 2006). Also, teen pregnancy represents eleven percent of all births in the United States (Guttmacher Institute, 2006). The underlying cause of teen pregnancy is mainly the lack of education on sexual and reproductive health and not enough being taught about how to use contraceptives. To help educate this knowledge it is dependent on not only

The prevalence of having had sexual intercourse before age 13 years was higher among male (8.3%) than female (3.1%) students(Kann, Laura, Steve Kinchen, and Shari L. Shanklin, et al.). Most schools do not even start the education until around 9th grade when a student is in most cases already over the age of thirteen. Children are starting to have sex at earlier ages so with reason schools need to start educating them at earlier ages. Students who are starting to have sex at such a young age need to know that the biggest risks of having sex at such a young age are unintended pregnancy, human immunodeficiency virus(HIV), and STIs.

Pregnancy and sex-based diseases have become an unfortunate reality for teens in our society. Sexually active teens as young as 13 years old are contracting harmful and dangerous diseases that threaten their lives. Staggering amounts of teenagers, around three million, have unprotected sex, from which they unfortunately contract STDs (Besharov 1). While some teenagers do not know the dangers of unprotected sex, such as STDs, others just choose to ignore them (Basso 125). Teen pregnancy is also very prevalent all over the world. Even though teen pregnancy rates in the United States are at a low, teens that are not educated in safe sex are still at risk of becoming pregnant. Some teens are even getting pregnant, just so they do not lose their boyfriend, or for attention. While children are wonderful, many teens are not mentally and/or physically prepared for children so young. For many people, it is believed that many teens are pressured to have unsafe and dangerous intercourse by the media. Although some teens (13-19) have unprotected sex early on purpose, many are influenced by sex-based commercials and advertisements because of lack of contraceptive ads, parental control, and sexual content in movies and TV show.

The subject and reality of teenagers being sexually active is concerning to millions of parents worldwide. Myself, being the mom of a 15-year-old boy, I am part of that enormous number. In the age of adolescence (13-19 years), when an individual gradually transitions from childhood to adulthood, hormones, puberty infused body development, peer pressure, and a search for themselves causes teenagers to try all kinds of things they associate with adult life, authority, and self-affirmation; sex is usually one of the “adult” attributes teenagers often experiment with. The decision to start having sex so early in life does not come without a cost, a cost that can lead well into adulthood. Research has revealed that teenagers who have casual sex get lower grades and have more school-related problems compared with those who abstain. In addition to the damaging effect that teenage sex has on academic development, research demonstrates that adolescents are not yet cognitively and emotionally matured to navigate the challenges of sex (Reyna and Farley 2006; Steinberg 2007), decades of research have associated teenage sexual to a variety of psychosocial adjustment problems, including depression, suicidality, poor school performance, low aspirations, delinquency, substance use, victimization, and disrupted family relationships (Connolly and McIsaac 2009; Kotchik et al. 2001; Zimmer-Gembeck and Helfand 2008). It is very normal for teenagers to develop sexual interests and feelings as

As adolescents enter their primitive years, many physiological changes take affect. The search for sexual identity begins as well as physical transformation from the pubescent to the adult body. Psychological changes take hold as well as adolescents balance the need for guidance with an increased thirst for freedom and parental independence. Scholars have linked these changes to several troubling issues in adolescent sexual behaviors including high rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (Goesling et. al., 2014). As such, early sexual education is vital in minimizing adolescent risk