Teen Sexual Health

18 Jun

Posted by Admin as Uncategorized

During your teens you become sexually mature. If you’re a girl, you develop breasts and begin to get your period. If you’re a boy, your penis and testicles become larger. If you have sex, you could get pregnant or get someone pregnant. Whether you choose to have sex or not, it is a good idea to know about safe sex and how sex affects your health. Besides pregnancy, having sex puts you at risk of getting a sexually transmitted disease, such as herpes or genital warts, or HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Teens don’t need a sexual predator to introduce them to online pornography. It comes to them through porn spam on their e-mail or by inadvertently clicking on a link to a porn site. Through pornography, young people get a twisted view of what constitutes normal relationships. In fact, pornography is directly related to sexual abuse, rape, and sexual violence.

Resources to Educate Teens About Sexuality And Sexual Health:

Vancouver Coastal Health is proud to offer teachers, school counselors, youth workers, and community health nurses this resource to support healthy adolescent development in our communities. The resource was developed in collaboration with high school students during the Parkgate Youth Sexual Health Project.The Parkgate Youth Sexual Health Project, Building Healthy Sexual Behavior in Teens took place between September 2003 and August 2004 in the Seymour area of North Vancouver, British Columbia. The key to the project’s success was the engagement and collaboration of a cross-section of community stakeholders, including youth.

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have become common among teens. Because teens are more at risk for getting some STDs, it’s important to learn what you can do to protect yourself. STDs are more than just an embarrassment. They’re a serious health problem. If untreated, some STDs can cause permanent damage, such as infertility (the inability to have a baby) and even death (in the case of HIV/AIDS).

Sex, Sexuality, and Relationships:

Although sex and relationships are areas of life that everyone has to deal with, we all experience confusion, questions and problems at some stage in our lives. Sometimes it’s not that easy to ask for help or advice. It’s too embarrassing or we don’t know who to ask.
Study, focusing on teenagers and their sexual health shows oral sex is no substitute for vaginal intercourse. Today the Guttmacher Institute released the results of recent research that breaks the myth that teens are substituting oral or anal sex for vaginal intercourse in order to continue to claim they are still virgins.

Teen Sexual Activity Increases, Contraceptive Use Decreases:

Almost half (48%) of high school teens say they have had sex–an increase of 2% between 2005 and 2007, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the same time period, the proportion of high school teens who say they used a condom the last time they had sex decreased 2%.

Sex education: Talking to your teen about sex:

You understand the importance of sex education. But don’t count on classroom instruction alone. Although the basics may be covered in health class, your child might not hear or understand everything he or she needs to know. That’s where you come in. Awkward as it may be, sex education is a parent’s responsibility. By reinforcing and supplementing what your child learns in school, you can help your child.