Warning! First Draft

STD’s affect teens by causing potential viral infections that will last forever, or by leading to a social stigma that makes teenagers anxious and fearful of social contact. Many people think that STD’s only affect people Physically, but they have a great emotional affect as well. Not many people know this because it is hard for teens to talk about. STD’s have many affects on young adults.

Ten percent of Americans are teenagers and less than half of them have had sexual intercourse. But the teens and young adults who have had sex get 50 percent of newly diagnosed STD’s each year. Young people are especially at risk for many sexually transmitted diseases. Teenagers account for three million cases of STDs annually. One out of every four sexually active teenagers acquires a new STD each year. One quarter of new infections of HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) are found in people under 22. Young women are at greater risk than older women for reproductive and health complications caused by STDs. This shows that it isn’t only adults engaging in sexual activity, it’s teenagers too.

Most people agree that abstinence is the most effective way of preventing sexually transmitted diseases and that people should be made aware that certain activities Including sex at an early age and sex with multiple partners greatly increase the risks of contracting STDs. But many sex education authorities, such as Debra W. Haffner of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S., contend that abstinence should not be the sole emphasis of STD prevention and sex education programs. Americans should acknowledge that many teenagers are engaging in sexual activity, Haffner and others maintain. Studies have found that the average age of first intercourse in the United States is sixteen and that two-thirds of America’s high school seniors are sexually experienced prior to graduation. Haffner argues that, given the reality that many teenagers reject the option of abstinence, young people should be given comprehensive sexuality information “about their bodies, gender roles, sexual abuse, pregnancy, and STD prevention,” including the proper use of condoms to prevent diseases. She asserts that “fearbased, abstinence-only programs” that “discuss contraception only in negative terms” threaten to reverse “the significant strides American youth have made during the last two decades to delay sexual activity or else protect themselves.” Abstinence isn’t doing what everybody thinks it is.

Sexually transmitted diseases have become a serious health problem in the United The Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, asserts that STDs are prevalent and constitute a “hidden epidemic” because of the reluctance of Americans to “address sexual health issues in an open way.” With twelve million new cases a year, America has one of the highest rates of STD infection in the industrialized world.

closing sentence -STDs (including AIDS) cost the United States an estimated $17 billion in health care costs each year.

STD’s have many affects on young adults. As you can see, many examples have been stated in this essay. STDs are affecting so many young adults and people should make talking about it more open and okay.