Sex. Yeah, I Said It. part 3

Sex. Yeah, I Said It. part 3

Did you know that more than 3 million teens get an STD each year?
Of course, this is just counting the teens as individuals. It doesn't say whether they contracted one STD or multiple, just that they had at least one.

And the best things come in group, don't you know? >__<;;

For instance, chlamydia and gonorrhea usually accompany each other.
HIV eventually turns into AIDS.
It's like chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers - you get s'mores!

So maybe to you this might seem like something completely silly to write about. Maybe.
But to me it's important. Very.
Aside from the multiple pregnant girls I've seen wandering through the halls the past few years (and have had classes with), the general area I live in has one of the highest STD rates in the country. And maybe that kind of freaks me out.

So last Friday in my Justic and Law class our school's SRO (School Resource Officer?) came as our guest speaker.
And it occurs to me that, just as with crime rates, the stats about sex don't really seem to hit home to me - not even the ones pertaining to my community.

Then it occurred to me: Maybe the other kids in my classes, and across the country, and maybe even across the world... Maybe we all don't even think about something until it hits close to home.
I mean, my school's STD rate could skyrocket (more than it already has, but not the point) and unless someone I'm close to or I contracted an STD, I probably wouldn't care.
I'm not entirely sure if I think that's sad or what, that I probably wouldn't care.
It doesn't seem close enough to affect me and, if I were sexually active, I probably wouldn't be as cautious as I could be.

Like I said in part one, many teen girls are more concerned about STDs than an unplanned and/or unwanted pregnancy.
I'm inclined to believe that this is because STDs can lead to infertility or sterility (which are actually two separate things, believe it or not).
(Infertility - having trouble conceiving. Sterility - the inability to conceive.)
Or maybe it's just because pregnancy is more widely tolerated among teenagers than STDs are.

Many STDs can be prevented.
How many teens were taught that the birth control pill doesn't protect against STDs? (Well, this probably explains the problem where I live...)
And how many teens were actually taught how to use a condom properly?

And I don't *necessarily* mean by a friend (this varies based on experience), but by a trusted adult. A parent, sex ed teacher, doctor, friend of the family, relative, someone...