Specific Answers for Your Questions

Posted on by Tori

I spent some time on Tuesday reading and clicking through a great website for parents. www.4parents.gov. It’s full of very practical answers to how to talk to you teens about various issues regarding sex. Click on the link above, and you’ll notice a menu off to the left of the screen. If you click on, “Talking to Your Pre-Teen or Teen About Waiting” you’ll find a whole new list of topics to read about. In my opinion, I think this is one of the most helpful pages.

I really like this page as well. It’s a tough topic, “What If My Son or Daughter Tells Me He or She is Gay?” but one that has come up recently in conversations.  When you read through the suggested discussion tips, parents, I would reverse the third and fourth bullet points. I think it’s more important to ask you teen his or her feelings or opinions before you (gently and clearly) state your own.

Hope you find it helpful!

Hooked

Posted on by Tori

Parents,

There’s an excellent resource out there, one that’s fairly new on the bookshelves. It’s a book called Hooked, written by Dr. Joe Mcilhaney and Dr. Freda Bush. It’s a study on how casual sex (i.e. the rampant “hook up” culture that exists today) affects teenagers and young adults.

These doctors study the brain’s activity, specifically in relation to what happens to people as they engage in sexual activity. The results are rather astounding.

 It’s an easy read, something you should definitely check out. If you are curious to hear more, check out this article here that lists other books written along the same line.

HPV – throat cancer risk

Posted on by Tori

Many teenagers are tempted to believe that oral sex is not sex. They believe that because oral sex cannot lead to pregnancy, it will also keep them safe from emotional risks and from STDs. Some teenagers are much more likely to engage in oral sex (and to have oral sex with a greater number of partners) than intercourse. Unfortunately, oral sex is just as risky as intercourse when it comes to STDs.

In particular, recent studies show that HPV (known to cause cervical cancer in women) is also a risk factor for throat cancer. Make sure that when you discuss sex and STDs with your teenager, you emphasize that any genital contact (even mouth to genital) increases the risk of contracting an STD.

New STD information

Posted on by Tori

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data on reportable sexually transmitted diseases last Friday. The data from 2006 show an increase in the instances of all three of the main bacterial STDs. Reported chlamydia cases topped 1 million in 2006, the majority of which occurred in females aged 15-19. Gonorrhea showed an increase in the number of drug-resistant cases and syphilis cases increased for the sixth year in a row — among men, the number of cases has risen 54 percent since 2002.

Exposure to these diseases is completely preventable. Talk to your children about the risks of sex and encourage them to remain abstinent until they are married. Remember, these diseases can be transferred through all forms of sexual activity, even when no symptoms are evident.

Here is another summary of the story.

Updated facts about HPV

Posted on by Tori

We want to make it easy for parents to find answers to their students’ questions. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released an updated information page responding to common questions about HPV. If you or your daughter have been wondering about this disease (and its new vaccine) you can find the answers to most of your questions at the CDC website.