Safe Sex is the Best Way to Go

Ayesha Reese and Kathy Almendares, International Studies Academy, Wat it do, ISA? (February 2007):

**This article contains information pertaining to sex and sexually transmitted diseases that was found in The Health Initiatives For Youth (HIFY) publications, Kickin' Back With The Girls: A Young Woman's Survival Guide and Walk Like A Warrior: A Young Man's Survival Guide. Information was also obtained from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia**

Sex is a subject that almost everyone knows and talks about, but do you really know what sex is?

Sex is something personal and is a subject that should be privately kept between two individuals. A lot of people believe that they know everything that they need to know about sex, but the truth is you can never know too much about safe sex, especially if you are sexually active.

The positive things about sex can turn into negative things. For girls, when a male tells them that he loves them it is not always true, it could just be that he wants sex.

The song “S.E.X.” by Lyfe Jennings is a prime example of what guys will tell a girl just to get what they want. The lyrics say, “You say that you’re not ready for sex, but you’re in love. He says if you’d really loved him, you would give it up Mamma says that’s just a line guys use to get ya stuff. Which one will you trust?”

Some people have sex with people that they don’t know, don’t care for in that way, or even don’t know. Sex isn’t just something you should do just for fun. In most cases, it’s something that you would do with someone you truly love and care for, not just someone you just met and you think is cute.

What is a virgin? The truth is, everyone has his or her own definitions of what a virgin is. For some people, virgin means that you haven’t had vaginal intercourse (penis in the vagina) and a girls’ hymen is still intact. A hymen is the tissue that covers or partially covers the opening of the vagina.

For others, being a virgin can mean that a person hasn’t had oral sex (mouth to genitals). It can also mean that a person hasn’t experienced anal sex (penis to anus). Personally, we believe that being a virgin means that you haven’t done anything with anybody, meaning no vaginal, anal or oral sex.

Some people ask themselves if there really is anything wrong with being a virgin. The answer is no. There is nothing wrong with that. You don’t have to be sexually active in order to fit in. it’s not cool to have sex just because your friends are all having sex.

Having sex can cause Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). STDs and STIs are diseases or infections that have a significant probability of transmission between people by means of sexual contact, vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and/or anal sex.

Some STIs can be transmitted through childbirth, the sharing of intravenous (IV) needles, and through breastfeeding. STDs affect guys and girls of all ages and backgrounds who are having sex -- it doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor.

Allegedly, by the age of 21, almost one in five Americans require treatment for an STD, and teens are more at risk for getting some STDs. Some of the STDs that you can catch are herpes, genital warts, syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia.

It’s important to learn what you can do to protect yourself against STDs. They are serious health problems and if untreated, some STDs can cause permanent damage such as infertility, which is the inability to naturally conceive a child or to carry a pregnancy to full term. They can also lead to death.

The only true way to be sure that you don’t get any STDs is to abstain from all types of sexual activity. Abstaining from sex means not having sex.

When you decide to not have sex with anyone that basically means that you are practicing being abstinent. One thing for sure and two things for certain, abstinence is the greatest form of birth control.