CONDOMS…CONDOMS…CONDOMS…CONDOMS!

For all of my teen blogger friends, I am very worried!  I read this article today that surveyed a slew of teen age girls and followed up the survey with medical testing and they found that 1 in 4 teenage girls have a sexually transmitted disease.  One in four!  Heart breaking.  Many of these girls had no idea that they were infected.  Only one half of the girls acknowledged that they had sexual relations.  However some teens do not believe that oral sex counts as having sex and that the only thing that does is intercourse. 

Girls and boys, you can get an STD from oral sex. 

Of the girls who admitted having sex a whopping 40% had at least one STD (sexually transmitted disease.) 

Now, there are some STD that can be cured with antibiotics.  And as you know there are some that can’t.  There is a new powerful strain of Gonorrhea that is drug resistant.  There is no cure for HIV/AIDS yet.  There is no cure for Herpes. 

It is vital that you always use a condom, unless you are in a stable long-term monogamous relationship, where both of you have been tested for STD’s and have been re-tested after the window it takes for the infection to show up in the blood work.  Until that time YOU MUST USE CONDOMS!

Also, all of my teen readers out there, if you’ve had any type of unprotected sexual activity, INCLUDING oral sex, please see your family doctor and get tested.  You can make the appointment yourself.  Just call up and make an appointment.  The doctor will have your medical care card number on file and if you ask for discretion they will have to honor that. 

Some STD are very treatable.  And if treated soon after you have become infected, can make the difference between being infertile or not and many other things. 

But as you know, there are no cures for some of the scarier STD’s and you could actually die from them.  The 15-26 year old age group is now the group that has the highest rate of new HIV infections. 

I was also STUNNED to read that some teens believe that douching with Coca-Cola will kill any STD.  This is ABSOLUTELY UNTRUE.

PLEASE…PLEASE…PLEASE…BE CAREFUL! 

Much love, Meg xo

Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 in Chewing the Fat