The Realities of Teens and Sexually Transmitted Diseases

According to the Centers for Disease Control and other medical sources, these are the surprising facts about teens and sexually transmitted diseases. Educate yourself and your teen, to avoid becoming infected with any STD.

• Teens make up about one quarter of the 12 million STD cases reported annually.
  
  
• Every year about one in four sexually active teens contract an STD, about 3 million people.
  
  
• In a single act of unprotected sex with an infected partner, a teenage woman has a 30 percent risk of getting genital herpes and a 50 percent chance of contacting gonorrhea.
  
• Chlamydia is the most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, and may be one of the most dangerous STDs among
  women today.
  
• An estimated one in four sexually active teens have chlamydia. Seventy-five percent of infected women, and 50 percent of infected men have no symptoms.
  
• The number one risk factor for cervical cancer is early sexual activity, the second is multiple sex partners.
  
• Human Papalloma Virus (HPV) is likely the most common STD among young, sexually-active populations.
  
  
• One in six sexually active teens contract HPV, which can cause pain, genital warts and cancer.
  
• Half of all sexually active young women end up contracting HPV — 20 percent eventually recover, but 80 percent are afflicted the rest of their lives.
  
• As of 1995, 30 percent of teens (15-19) use contraception.
  
• Every year 1 in 5 women aged 15 to 19 who have had sex become pregnant.
  
• Thirteen percent of all US births are to teens.
  For more information visit the Westside Pregnancy Resource Center at
  www.w-cpc.org.