A 2007 newsletter from The Center for the 4th and 5th Rs shares stories from the lives of high school and college students that illustrate ten emotional dangers of premature sexual involvement:
(1) Worry about pregnancy and disease.
(2) Regret. A 2004 survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy reported two-thirds of teens who had sex said they wished they had waited.
(3) Guilt.
(4) Loss of self-esteem and self-respect.
(5) Corruption of character.
(6) Fear of commitment.
(7) Depression & suicide. A 1991 study in Pediatrics found that the attempted suicide rate for sexually experienced girls ages 12 -16 was six times higher than it was for girls that age who were virgins.
(8) Damaged or ruined relationships.
(9) Stunted personal development.
(10) Negative effects on marriage including comparisons and flashbacks, infidelity, infertility and increased chance for divorce.
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Health Risks of Casual Sex
• One in 5 Americans over the age of 12 are infected with herpes
and 80% of those with herpes show no symptoms.
• The total estimated number of people living in the US with a viral
STD is over 65 million – 1 in 4 people.
• Each year, there are at least 15 million new cases of STDs.
• About half of all new STDs in 2000 occurred among youth, ages
15-24.
• About 1.2 million people have HIV/AIDS and approximately 25%
of them are unaware of their infection.
• There are 42,000 estimated new cases of HIV each year.
• The only sure ways to avoid sexual transmission of diseases
(including AIDS, chlamydia, genital herpes, genital warts,
gonorrhoea, hepatitis B, and syphilis) are not to have sex at all or
to limit sex to one uninfected partner who is also monogamous.
Food and Drug Administrationc (USA) Consumer Magazine, Sept. 1990;
A Woman’s Care Center, awomenscarecenter.org/stds.html
