Sex, STDs and Misinformed Teenagers: A Destructive Combination
One of the first posts I wrote for this blog had to do with reproductive health. In "The Condom Carnaval" I reported on how Brazil was unleashing a condom program in time for carnaval and how it was targetting it to women in the 15 to 24 age range, since only 42% of them practice safe sex.
Well ...
The Center for Disease Control released a study almost two weeks ago describing how HPV, herpes, chlamydia and other sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise among young women between the ages of 14 and 19 :
Chicago (March 11, 2008) - A CDC study released today estimates that one in four (26 percent) young women between the ages of 14 and 19 in the United States - or 3.2 million teenage girls - is infected with at least one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases (human papillomavirus (HPV), chlamydia, herpes simplex virus, and trichomoniasis). The study, presented today at the 2008 National STD Prevention Conference, is the first to examine the combined national prevalence of common STDs among adolescent women in the United States, and provides the clearest picture to date of the overall STD burden in adolescent women.
Led by CDC's Sara Forhan, M.D., M.P.H., the study also finds that African-American teenage girls were most severely affected. Nearly half of the young African-American women (48 percent) were infected with an STD, compared to 20 percent of young white women
What is mind-numblingly frustrating about these statistics is that, as I search high and low for videos or information that could address this crisis, every single one of them ends up with the same conclusion : That teenagers ought to practice safe sex by not having sex at all.
Now, as a mother I'd love to have my boys be my babies for the rest of their lives but that is just not going to happen. And if more than 50% of girls are already having sex, why aren't that reality in our sex education courses?
Just because a person reaches the age of 18 it doesn't mean that all of a sudden they're immune to STDs. Teenagers ought to learn about the ins and out of relationships. From their economics and politics, to their diplomacy and various social capitals; but more importantly, their networking supremacy. Relationships are usually treated in our culture as happening only between two people. If anything, STDs ought to expose the reality of dating : When you have sex with someone you are actually becoming part of a network of relationships, hopes, dreams but more importantly, diseases.
This is what's so amazing about the public health policy in Brazil. They are not dealing with "shoulda coulda wouldas". The Brazilian government has chosen to save lives by addressing teenagers as they are now.
When will we learn in this country that we're killing our kids by denying them life-saving knowledge?
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How about something (network diagram?) to make people aware how we are connected, to various degrees, to a huge number of people, many of whom we know nothing about?
Just as you often find that someone you meet knows somebody that you know, somebody you have sex with may previously have had sex with a number of people some of whom will have been infected with something.
Unfortunately people are far less likely to divulge details of their previous sexual encounters, however intimate they may become.
"Don't put that in your mouth; you don't know where it's been!"
Idea: a poster could show a gorgeous guy/gal linked to a few past partners, one of whom is linked to a much larger number of partners, each of whom has a question mark over them, or connections to more people "off the page". The whole network could enclose the first guy/gal in a claustrophobic net of suspicion and doubt.
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Another line from the CDC report:
"They note that the total prevalence might be slightly higher than these estimates indicate, because some STIs – including syphilis, HIV and gonorrhea – were not included in the analysis; however, the prevalence of these STIs is low in this age group."
(I would add italics if I knew how.)
Don't put that in your mouth; you don't know where it's been!"
LOL!
That's just sooooo wrong ... hahahhahahaha.
But seriously, it's not a bad idea. Given Kenneth Cole's work with AmFar, that's definitely one campaign idea they could adopt.
Especially since we're in the age of social networking through the internet. It's not something that'll be abstract to young adults and teenagers that've grown up socializing via the technology.