Essay on STD PREVENTION

I chose do my biology report on Sexually Transmitted Diseases because STDs are becoming a concern for Americans and especially American teens. There are two kinds of STDs, viral and bacterial. Viral Studs are incurable; the most common viral Studs are HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B, herpes, and HPV. Bacterial STDs are curable. The most common bacterial STDs are gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) are one of the most common and preventable health care problems in the world. The ageism of the population and the increase in the number of older adults, along with healthcare advances that provide better and longer quality of life, has encourage changes in sexuality amongst older adults. This increase has prompted healthcare workers to familiarize themselves with the sexuality of older adults. In this report, I plan to discuss the significance of this topic, the concern for the public, and interventions that can be implemented from a Community Health Nurse prospective.

Due to the lack comprehensive sex education, they are left in the dark about how to be properly prepared for a situation that may arise regarding sexual activity and how to protect them against sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancy. It is a great down fall the lack of education on contraceptives, which only leaves American teens at a greater risk for long-term consequences.

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.

At the youthful age of 12, and significantly more

Stigmatizing sex and forcing teenagers to hide from authority figures in order to engage in it simply makes it more dangerous. Preventing access to birth control is associated with limiting discussion or education with teenagers and their authority figures about sexual behavior. Lack of sex education is associated with positive sexual behaviors, including a significantly reduced likelihood of teen pregnancy (Lindberg and Maddow-Zimet 333). Specifically, teaching adolescents about birth control options increases the likelihood of birth control usage and other safer sexual practices (Lindberg and Maddow-Zimet 337). For instance,

decades. Some people were born at 26 weeks in the early 60’s and suffers from severe

Age - Trends of two age ranges have been noticed to be risk factors, children between 4 and 7 years old, and the second is in children between ages 10 and 14 years old.

In the last decade or so, however, the growing awareness of the dangers of AIDS does appear to have contributed to a decline in the rates of sexual intercourse among teens. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that between 1991 and 2005 the percentage of teenagers who are sexually active dropped from 57.4 percent to 46.3 percent among males and from 50.8 percent to 44.9 percent among females. The rates of pregnancy, abortion, and sexually transmitted disease among teens have actually dropped even faster than the rate of sexual activity. So it appears that, in addition to postponing sex, teens are also becoming more responsible in their sexual activities. For example, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 87.5 percent of teens were either abstinent or used condoms. Of course, that means that 12.5 percent of teens were still having unprotected sex, but that is a significant improvement over past decades. Similarly, although the rate of teen pregnancy has declined, more than 11 percent of the babies born in the United States

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

Our generation of teens has become too prone of sexual activity with less worry of the consequences it comes along with. Most teenagers, ages 15 through 19, are sexually active, approximately 30 percent being of the ages 15 and 16. Many young teens have not been exposed to all the repercussions, such as risk of pregnancy and STDs, that sex can result in. Our schools need to provide better sex education courses and require students to receive credit in them.

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.

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).

Sexually transmitted diseases are known as STDs or STIs, which stands for sexually transmitted infections. STDs and STIs are infectious diseases that spread from person to person through intimate contact. STDs affect guys and girls of all ages and backgrounds who are having sex, including oral and anal sex, and having skin to skin contact with an infected area or sore. Common STDs include Genital Herpes, Genital Warts, Gonorrhea, Hepatitis A, B, and C.

Over many years, the views of premarital sex have been becoming increasingly more tolerant. The whole reasoning behind why sex was created is lost in the minds of society and used for pleasure and own physical satisfaction. There are negative consequences for these actions leading to guilt, depression, and numbness to intimate relationships. Having strong parental influence can also strongly affect the outcomes of adolescence and causal sex. Additionally, marriage can be