Sexually Transmitted Infections And Young Adults

Sexual education is a highly debatable topic, but many believe the information taught to students should be abstinence-only. Abstinence-only education has been put in place in order to educate students about the social, mental, and physical benefits of resisting from all sexual activity. It emphasizes the unsafe impacts of participating in sexual activity before marriage and having casual sex. It also promotes the idea that sexual abstinence is the only way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Abstinence education only permits the discussion of contraception and condoms in terms of failure in order to utterly discourage casual sex (Wilgoren, 1). Along with teaching the physical dangers of sex, abstinence education also teaches the mental dangers of sex (Abstinence-Only Education, 1). Sex has many risks and dangers that are not

According to advocatesforyouth.org, “abstinence only education teaches students to abstain from sex prior to marriage.” These program has been proven to be ineffective. Abstinence only education is ineffective because it is not conducive in reducing teen pregnancy rates and sexually transmitted diseases rates. Abstinence only programs are less likely to teach students about birth control and contraception and how to access it. These programs has not been shown to reduce teen sexual activity.

College campuses have seen a rise, in the epidemic of Sexually transmitted diseases. Sexually transmitted diseases have quickly become a household name amongst Americans. The dangers and health issues related to acquiring a STD has been the reason why more attention has been brought to the STD epidemic. The reason for this attention is to hopefully, slow down the rate of STD’S amongst students. There is a very astonishing fact stated by the Agape Pregnancy Resource Center, “Nearly 80% percent of people that are infected with STD’s do not know it. ("Agape Pregnancy Resource Center") The use of condoms, knowing your status, and the practice of abstinence are very effective ways of avoiding contracting STD’s. If we do not make students

According to Koumans et. al (2005), there have not been any studies conducted on STD education or services provided by higher education institutions here in the U.S. However, several studies demonstrate that misinformation and lack of educational resources contribute to risky sexual behavior which can lead to STDs (Wyatt & Oswalt, 2014).Therefore, it is imperative that universities and colleges find ways to increase awareness of sexual health services available for students on campus.

Currently, in our nation, there is a nationwide epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases(STD) caused by a lack of carefulness and overall disregard for general health and sexual standards. Americans have been engaged in premarital sex at an increasing rate since 2004 with 94% of the interviewed population stating they have had sex before marriage. This increase in “pleasure sex” has exposed much of America to STD’s and the resulting outbreak has been catastrophic. With an average of one out of four people carrying an STD even though they may not possess the symptoms, they pass it on through the increase in sexual behavior. If we as a nation work together to increase sexual standards and promote safe sex, then we can control this outbreak

Sex education for American youth has been a topic of discussion across the nation since the early 1980s. Teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease are two major problems throughout the U.S.. Sexually transmitted infections have been an ongoing problem for American people since World War I. To combat the growing teen pregnancy and STI rates, the U.S. established organized sex education. Since sex education has been integrated in schools across the nation, it has been heavily influenced by religion. The federal government has funded abstinence-only education programs for over a quarter century. Abstinence-only

There is a continuing increase in the rates of sexually transmitted infections, particularly in people ages 15-25 (Westwood, 2006). Twelve million new cases of

Numerous sexual partners enables the chances of contracting an STI, such as Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, or Syphilis, to increase; that being said, statistics indicate that one in every five teens has had four or more sexual partners. Teens of the ages 15 through 19 are among the highest rates of the population infected with the previously mentioned sexually transmitted diseases. Teens engaging in sexual activity are often exposed to diseases without full understanding of the ease that these infections can be transmitted; students need to be exposed to the severe consequences in order to promote more cautious future decisions, like the amount of sexual encounters. Many young males and females never acquire information on the numerous sexually transmitted infections that they could catch and distribute nor how to prevent or treat such diseases. The statistics of high school students that document receiving counseling on STDs and STD testing at a routine checkup with their doctor meets low expectations, recording at 42.8 percent for females and only 26.4 percent for males. The high rates of infected teens could be directly related to the lack of knowledge they receive on the possible diseases that can be distributed through sex. Without proper knowledge on sexually transmitted diseases, the

Currently, there is no national standard regarding sexual education in America. Soaring sexually transmitted infection (STI) rates are occurring at a national level – there are approximately nine million new occurrences of STI's in the United States each year among teenagers and young adults alone (Alan Guttmacher Institute 2011). Consequently, "the United States continues to have one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the developed world—more than twice as in Canada" (Alan Guttmacher Institute 2011). This large number of infected teenagers combined with the startling pregnancy rates has caused a state of panic in many states, provoking discussion on the topic of introducing comprehensive sexual education into the classroom as a

Abstinence teaching only is not effective when trying to prevent STIs in teenagers. According to "Life123" (2012), ”While abstinence-only education programs have the support of many major national religious groups, a comprehensive sex education program in schools has the backing of a wide range of educational and medical organizations. Most proponents of comprehensive sex education argue that teens should be encouraged to abstain, but should also get information about contraceptives, sexually transmitted diseases, and how to prevent HIV” (Family).

The World Health Organization defines sexually transmitted infections (STIs) as infections that are mainly passed through person to person sexual contact (World Health Organization [WHO], 2012). Some of the more common infections include syphilis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and genital herpes (World Health Organization [WHO], 2012). Every year about 19 million new STI cases are reported by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2011). Such high incidence rates cause the U.S health care system 17 billion dollars a year (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2011). Beyond having increased costs STIs also have a huge social impact on society.

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

Therefore, Australian adolescents are at serious risk as there are approximately 25% of young people reported sexually active by 15 years-old, with numbers increasing to 50% by Year 12; only 40% practice safe sex and use a condom (ACYS, 2014).Therefore, they are at greater risk of contracting STIs as a consequence of inexperience and lack of knowledge concerning risks with unprotected sex and access to contraception, social pressure, frequency of partner change, substance use and unwillingness to talk with parents or their general practitioner (DoHA, 2005). Hence, the success of lowering the prevalence of STIs among adolescents relies heavily on the knowledge about reproductive matters and access to and use of effective

The “talk”. When I was in the fifth and eighth grade. I took a sex-ed course. Within this course I learned about the male and female reproductive system, the different forms of protection, transmitted diseases, the emotional and physical effects of sex, and the choice to become abstinent and also about pregnancy. After this course I was well aware of the human body and the effects of sex. Abstinence-only courses does not talk about half the information sex-ed courses talk about. States should establish a law for schools to teach sex-ed courses instead of abstinence only courses because it is more effective.

According to Christina Fisanick (2010), an author who specializes in writing about controversial subjects, those on the side of abstinence argue that “promoting abstinence until marriage is the only way to ensure the safety and well being of all young people who might consider engaging in premarital sex,” and “insist that abstinence-only education is essential for the well being of society” (“Introduction to Do Abstinence Programs Work,” 2010). Emma Elliott (2009), a defender of abstinent-only sex education and writer for Concerned Women for America (the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization dedicated to promoting biblical values), argues that abstinence sex education is the