Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are infections often- but not always- spread by sexual intercourse with an infected person. The symptoms range from genital warts or blisters in HPV and Herpes to flu-like symptoms as seen in HIV. I’m sure “the talk,” if your parents did have one with you, is engrained in your brain just the same as everyone around you. Now you can probably think back to the sex education class your high school forced you through during the awkward, right-after puberty years. Now, even though we were put through uncomfortable speeches and an entire semester of class, the problem with the rising rates of STDs in the United States stems from lack of education.
Most schools are not correctly informing their students about the risks of STDs and how to prevent contraction. If you took a poll of any college classroom (which we did in my very informative Education 181 class) the majority of students would tell a horrific story about how bad their school was at relaying information about sexual safety. The sad reality for most teenagers is that they learned their information on the internet or from a very unsafe experimental experience and their friends. The lack of sexual education is also disproportionate across states because each state makes its own laws concerning sex ed and even worse, there are also disparities among races. African American and Latinx pregnancy rates are double or triple the rate of White American rates in Texas.
The rise in STDs is directly correlated with the amount of sex education received, with higher rates being in states that do not require sex education classes at all or those that use fear-based tactics like the abstinence only techniques to teach. In the last 5 years, the rates of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis have risen consistently and currently they are at an all time high in the United States. I think the best way to slow down the rise in rates of STDs is to encourage medically accurate education, which is currently only mandatory in 17 states. STDs in the United States are completely preventable with the use of protection but the lack of education and openness for questions is leading to teenagers having sexual intercourse without protecting themselves. The STD endemic shows no signs of abating as seen by statistics in recent years but with proper education, some in the younger generations may be saved from the pain and humiliation of contracting an STD.
jill and micro 