Sex education

Sex Education

The Problem

For as long as I could remember, sex is a subject you cannot speak about, it is to be taboo and wrong. We don't learn from a lot of what's going on from sex from our parents, we learn it from the internet of by reading of it. Even in school where you should have an education towards it, it always felt restricted and full of fillers or blanks. Majority of our sex education is all the same with little to no new information besides the idea to be careful and use condoms or the alternative, don’t have sex. The information we are taught in class is usually things we usually know, as well as much of the textbooks are also old and aren’t updated with the new research and treatments that technology has started to advance in. 

Why does it matter to me 

At least for me that is how it was done, we had one class our freshman year of high school and talked about health and the diseases that you can get and a description on what it is and then how it can be stopped. It’s such a short chapter and review that really you only get the surface level of sex education. Even then the teacher you get, can be different in how to teach, my classmates were learning how-to put-on condoms on bananas and my class never learned that. We never even got more than what the textbook said. From my experience, I think school did a good start in teaching the basics of sex, yet it lacked in a lot of topics that can help the community become better. Textbooks used in classroom don't really explain sexuality either or any type of topic of that sort, it doesn't include the LGBTQ community. Although, one thing I do know is that based on people’s beliefs and culture plays a huge part as to what people can teach but sex education is part of our health so we should be learning about it because it can happen to anyone. 

I strongly believe that sex education shouldn't be limited in schools or have to be difficult to take about. We have created the idea that it's bad to talk about it yet we all do it. We are all exposed to it. I had many friends who have gotten STD's not just once but multiple times and a lot of the times it gets passed down because they didn't get checked or weren't aware of signs to help them see that something is wrong and continued to have sex with other people. However, I feel as if I was exposed to it enough to know and do my own research afterwards yet there are many states and countries where they aren't allowed to talk or learn the basics. It then creates the statistics of disease and lack of knowledge in sex. Many teachers would tell us in high school that the key to being safe while being active is to know the consequences and know what you are doing safety. Ask questions, it's better to ask than later be sorry. Communicate with your partner and if not get informed of how you can be safe even if the other person isn't. 

The Research

According to the Center for Disease Control and Preventions it states that the primary and secondary most common sexual transmitted diseases are gonorrhea at more than 583,000 cases and an increasing rate of 5% from 2017, as for syphilis which has 35,000 cases and a 14.9% rise since 2017. then comes chlamydia at a rise of 3% (making a total of 1.7 M cases since 2018). 

In another article it states how “only 34% of young people around the world” are aware of “HIV prevention and transmission.” One of the things that you are told is that many who have the disease don’t even know they have it. Most signs as explained in many textbooks don't start to show until weeks or even years later (ex: HIV). Even a simple curable std sometimes can't be noticed and it continues to spread around creating the numbers in increase yearly. They usually tell us to get tested frequently to see that we are clean. For HIV there is an open window from the two week mark up until the six month, meaning that you can get tested and your results are negative, yet you may have the disease and it can't be detected yet.

In the article of "America's Sex Education: How We Are Failing Our Students" by the use nursing department states how the "LGBTQ communities can be at higher risk of contracting STD's, but safeguarding against transmission becomes difficult when states prohibits teachers from discussing sexual orientation in class." Most of the time at home sexual orientation isn't talked about either and kids aren't learning or lack the information to get informed towards their health. The majority of the time information we know is the most important such as the type of ways to protect ourselves and over the years new forms have been developed as well. 

Forms of Prevention

Condoms

One of the forms that is taught in school is using condoms to prevent any type of STD’S or HIV. Majority of the states have classes and explain how condoms work and even give out free condoms to kids to be safe. 

PrEp

One of the things that many textbooks aren’t updated is the fact that there is a PrEp treatment or Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis pill. The pill is given to those who are at high risk of getting HIV, for instance, having a partner who’s HIV positive or many sexual partners. In “centers for disease control and prevention” it states how “When someone is exposed to HIV through sex or injection drug use, these medicines can work to keep the virus from establishing a permanent infection.” The way that the product works is when you take it daily, the medication has a higher effect in preventing HIV. In studies that have been done show that when taken daily it has a 99% effectiveness however, if a person injects drugs given the effectiveness is 74%. 

Birth Control

Another thing people worry about is pregnancy, for the past few decades we have had birth control that helps us prevent unwanted pregnancies. There are many types of birth control now a days and each has its own effectiveness, and everyone is different from everyone. Some of the birth control can be seen in the picture on the side. Not only do we sometimes have this type of birth control, but our own community has given us more resources to get birth control or testing and other sources such as the company Planned Parenthood.

My Community

Elizabeth 

“I went to a private school, so I was never educated about sex education. If I ever have a question in mind or want advice, I feel comfortable enough to go to my mom, but we hardly talk about it.” 

Katherine

“I think it’s important to learn about sex, you learn about different diseases there are and what you can do to prevent them and treat them. Sex education teaches the basics, in 5^thgrade I learned about how our bodies will change, and in high school we had health class. The only problem is how students aren’t comfortable to ask question they have because the class doesn’t want to go in depth.”

Solutions?

As seen previously, we can see that even if one person is educated with how sex education works if the other person doesn’t it can bring a lot of issues and safe sex is no longer safe. Sex doesn’t just involve one person but both people to be safe and careful. Regular checkups, protection, getting informed and keep getting informed for new news.

Reference 

“America's Sex Education: How We Are Failing Our Students.” Blog, 18 Sept. 2017, nursing.usc.edu/blog/americas-sex-education/.

Galvin, Gaby. “STDs Combine for Record High in U.S.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 8 Oct. 2019, www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2019-10-08/stds-hit-record-high-in-us.

“HIV.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/hiv/risk/prep/index.html.

Tatter, Grace. “Sex Education That Goes Beyond Sex.” Harvard Graduate School of Education, 8 Nov. 2018, www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/18/11/sex-education-goes-beyond-sex.

“Why Comprehensive Sexuality Education Is Important.” UNESCO, 19 June 2018, en.unesco.org/news/why-comprehensive-sexuality-education-important.