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Jill Dwyer is the director
of education at the
Women’s Resource Clinic
in Chico. She’s also an
educator for the
Generation AWARE program
and on the planning
committee for its Parent
Education Workshops.
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One in four teen girls is infected
with a sexually transmitted disease. How
incredibly tragic. Recent media reports
quote doctors and Planned Parenthood
assigning blame for this epidemic on
“abstinence only” education—yet on the
Web sites of Planned Parenthood, The
Medical Institute, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, National
Institute of Health and more, abstinence
is stated as the only 100 percent
effective way to avoid sexually
transmitted infections and unplanned
pregnancy.
Had they asked Dr.
Meg Meeker, a leading authority on STDs,
she would’ve explained how the “safe
sex” mantra of the past 20 years is a
fallacy.
Condom use has
risen 67 percent in that time as STDs
have become epidemic. Two of the most
common STDs, genital herpes and HPV, can
be transmitted by skin-to-skin contact
in areas not covered by condoms. And the
recent explosion of oral cancer in males
and females due to HPV is surpassing
that caused by tobacco and alcohol. Our
teens are at a growing risk of this
deadly disease with more than half of
American teens now engaging in oral sex.
The casual
sex/hooking up/safe sex message our
youth are being sold today reminds me of
the message my generation was sold about
a smoking lifestyle. If I smoked, I’d be
sexy, cool, glamorous, even athletic
(think Virginia Slims). When the truth
was told about cigarettes, it showed
addiction, disease and death.
Our youth deserve
the same truth about the STD epidemic
affecting them directly. How sexy, cool,
popular, macho, happy will they be when
they’re infected with genital warts,
diagnosed with cervical or mouth cancer,
experiencing the painful lesions of
herpes, or the heartbreaking news that
they’re infertile because of untreated
Chlamydia?
I’m frustrated and
saddened by the competition of who’s
“right” or “wrong” in the debate of
abstinence vs. comprehensive sex
education. What’s critically important
is to be honest about the very real,
life-changing consequences and risks of
sex with more than one partner—an
uninfected, faithful, lifetime partner.
There’s an urgency
for this generation to turn things
around. We must help teens understand
that their sexual choices will either be
part of the problem or the solution.
I
challenge us all to become educated on
the STD epidemic and talk to the teens
in our lives about sex, including oral
sex. They are waiting to hear from us.
They’re already hearing a dangerous
message loud and clear from the
sex-saturated media. We must join in our
efforts to educate, encourage and
empower them to make the best possible
choices for happy and healthy lives.
