The big topic this week is how a new study shows that one in four teen girls have an STD. These numbers are staggering and disturbing. One of the most disturbing things about them is that not everyone has an STD so the number of teen girls have sex would be even larger and just means that the number of teen girls that has an STD could continue to rise. This is something that I am not really suprised about at least the sex part more and more teens act like they are adults and it only seems to get worse every year. The STD part is what disturbs me because I know in middle school and high school I saw more than enough pictures of different STDs and none of them looked appealing. I really do not know what would connect with teens and make them understand. I know that I didn't need anything more than the pictures to be convinced. It all comes from the mentality that they are invincible and that mentality seems to be getting stronger and stronger.
The only problem I have with this study is that it includes HPV. Everyone freaks out about HPV when in most cases its not that bad. If we separate the HPV that cause warts and only focus on the one that can cause cancer which is the higher percentage than you will see that HPV is not a super scary thing. When you are diagnosed with HPV they do not give you any kind of medicine they just tell you to live as healthy as possible. Your body does not have a hard time killing the virus. It takes some time but that is all. HPV is also something that you would never know you had unless it was found during a pap smear. That being said if you do not get pap smears very often you could get HPV and your body could get rid of it before you ever know that you had it. It still is important to have safe sex and go to the doctor for check ups but also important to know that not all STDs are the same and the same stigma should not get attached to all of them. This stigma that you are bad or dirty because you get them will make you less likely to go see a doctor. So while this article is disturbing you have to look at it from different angles.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/11/teen.std.ap/index.html?iref=werecommend
Even though less threatening STDs are mixed in with the study it is still very scary. As you said, this percentage will grow as this generation gets older and continues to have more and more sexual relationships. It makes me scared for my future kids. Will I be able to convince them that having sex early is not a good idea. Also will so many people have an STD of some sort, by that time, that they will most likely come in contact with one in every sexual encounter?
I definately am not surprised by the sex part, but I am surprised by the 1 in 4 girls having an STD. I wonder what the demographics of this study were? I think that so many people in high school feel like this would never happen to them. They feel like all of the people that they know are "clean" because of what they look like or where they live. I know that when I was in high school I didn't think that anyone that I knew had an STD. Now I know that it is very possible for some of my friends to have one. I think that something needs to happen in the schools. So many schools, especially private ones, are trying to teach the No Sex approach. This is not working because students are going to have sex if they want to. What needs to be taught is these numbers. 1 in 4! They need to teach these kids that they have to protect themselves from these types of diseases. Many kids get wrapped up in the moment and don't realize that what they might do in one night could affect them for the rest of their lives!