Teenage Virginity Pledges - Why Are They Still At Risk for STDs?

 

Teenagers often have a difficult time when it comes to their sexuality. There are many pressures they face from their peers, the media, and their own consciousness. It is sometimes difficult as they try to sort out the values they were raised with along with the values they are trying to create for themselves. In addition, many teens feel they cannot confide in their parents.

 

Some teenagers make a pledge to retain their virginity until marriage. What is fascinating about this is that those who pledge abstinence have the same statistics of sexually transmitted diseases as those teenagers who are sexually active. This begs the question of if it makes a difference if the teenagers remain a virgin?

 

Those adolescents that make a virginity pledge are thought to be less likely to engage in sexual activity throughout high school and college. These teens are thought to have better life outcomes and be less likely to become teen mothers. Although that sounds great, they are also at a greater risk for having unprotected sex when they finally make that choice. Another part of this pledge is that most teenagers do not consider oral sex as “sex.” Therefore, if they are not practicing safe sex measures, then they are still at risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

 

The adolescents who make this pledge eventually decide to have sex and when they do; they do not use condoms and therefore are at a greater risk of infection. It is very important that even if they make a virginity pledge, that they are still educated with the different forms of protection that is available and the reasons for their use. They should also be educated in the different types of birth control available. A complication to this issue is that if a young person who has made this pledge does end up having sex and subsequently contracts a sexually transmitted disease, the chance that they will tell their family or medical professional are slim to none. They will be so embarrassed that they will tell no one and then the cycle begins. They keep quiet and continue to have sex. Their partner does not know and continues to have sex and before you know it, the disease is running rampant among the teenagers.

 

The males who do not make the virginity pledges are more likely to wear a condom when they have sex. Significantly lower averages of those males who make the pledge wear condoms. The rise in the females who have pledged virginity and contracted a sexually transmitted disease is on the increase. Interestingly enough, more than 70 percent of the male and females who pledge virginity have sex before marriage and when they do, they have unprotected sex. Those who do not make the pledge also have sex before marriage but they do use protection. Another interesting situation with this group of teenagers is those who make the virginity pledge are more likely to use birth control as opposed to the teenagers who do not.

 

Therefore, what this creates is a group of teenagers who have pledged virginity and often do not practice safe sex methods. These teens are often