Introduction
Adolescence is the transitional period of development between childhood and adulthood. It is also called the teenage years. This stage of development is an emotional assault course for all concerned. Teenagers are neither children nor adults. It is the most turbulent time for them. During the period of adolescence a person experiences a great variety of rapid physical changes and encounters a lot of deep emotional issues. For every culture the age that is considered to be part of the teenage years is different. It can range from pre-teens to nineteens years. The World Health Organization establishes that adolescence covers the span of life between ten and twenty years of age. As well as becoming taller, starting to shave or having periods young people on this stage start to think and feel differently. They are making rather close relationships outside the family, with friends of their own age. At this time the question of adolescent sexuality arises. Every teenager’s objectives are to be healthy but at the same time to become sexually active. Teenagers’ sexuality concerns some aspects of life that no longer make part of only of the adult world. On the one hand there are young people forming up their personality features, a pot of stimuli and commotions. On the other hand, there’s hormonal excitation related to adolescent sexuality, which can be called sexual realization.
Main text
More than half of teenagers in the USA will have had their first experience of sex before the sixteen years age and so the risk of early pregnancy is an essential part of adolescent life (Cobb Nancy J., 1998). Nevertheless most adolescents try to choose their partners rather carefully. Risky unprotected intercourse and sleeping around are often signs of underlying emotional problems. They may also be the signs of a risk-taking way of life. Adolescents, who take risks in one way tend to take risks in other ways as well. So, those young people, who start having sex early are at greater risk of serious health problems. It concerns not only pregnancy but first of all sexually transmitted diseases or infections (STDs). STDs are very common all around the world especially nowadays. They are caused by viruses, bacteria or parasites. Many teenagers think that only others can get STDs and they have no risk of picking up an infection. But practically everyone who is sexually active can catch sexually transmitted diseases if they don’t practice safe sex (Cobb Nancy J., 1998). Clear that you just cannot say that a person has STD only by looking at him or her. But if you have unprotected sex with this infected person you will surely get the disease. STDs include chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, syphilis, scabies, genital herpes, pubic lice (crabs), hepatitis and HIV (the virus that causes AIDS).
Any sexually active person can be infected with chlamydia. The risk to be infected becomes greater, if a person has great number of sex partners. Teenage girls and young women are more susceptible to chlamydia, because their cervix is not fully matured. In most cases chlamydia can be transmitted during oral, anal and vaginal sex. But sometimes an infected mother can pass the disease to her baby during vaginal childbirth. It is reported that chlamydia is the most frequent sexually transmitted disease in the United States. In 2006 more than two million people from 14 to 39 years were infected with chlamydia (Mary-Ann Shafer, 2006). This number is approximate, because a lot of people with the disease are not aware of the symptoms and do not want to be tested on chlamydia.
Scientists sometimes call chlamydia a “silent” disease, because half of infected men and women don’t have any serious symptoms. The symptoms can occur during 1 to 3 weeks after exposure. The bacteria infect women’s cervix and urethra and cause such symptoms as abnormal vaginal secreting, burning sensation during urinating. When the infections come to fallopian tubes, one woman can have no symptoms, the other feels back pain, vomits, lower enteric pain, pain during intercourse, bleeding between menstrual periods. Chlamydia can be detected in the throats of women, who have oral sex with an infected partner.
Every teenager must know the complications that can result from untreated chlamydia. The most dangerous complications lead to serious reproductive and genetic, health problems with long-term and short-term after problems. If a young woman doesn’t treat chlamydia it can cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) up to 40 percent of women. PID in its turn may lead to constant affection to the cervix, fallopian tubes and surrounding tissues. Untreated chlamydia can also cause such chronic damage as infertility, pelvic pain, pregnancy outside the uterus and even Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
Since 20 years and younger all sexually active women should do screening tests every year to prevent the future serious problems of chlamydia. For all pregnant women such laboratory test is obligatory, because babies can get chlamydiae infections in their eyes and respiratory tracts from the infected mothers (Mary-Ann Shafer, 2006). To prevent chlamydia teenagers should consistently and correctly use the latex male condoms. If a young man or lady notices some symptoms of chlamydia, they should avoid sexual contact and consult the doctor.
Gonorrhea is the second spread sexual disaster in the United States which can be passed from one sexual partner to another during vaginal, oral or anal sex. A big number of sex partners increase the chance to get infected with gonorrhea. Every year near seven hundred thousand people get sick with gonorrhea and not all of them know about it. Infections with the disease are more common for adolescents and young adults (Mary-Ann Shafer, 2006).
Men more often than women get the symptoms of gonorrhea two or five days after being exposed. Most women have no symptoms of the disease, but those who have symptoms, usually notice them ten days after being exposed. Gonorrhea can cause such symptoms in men’s organisms as pain and pruritus of the head of the penis, frequent urination, pain and burning during urination, intumescence of the penis or testicles, white discharge. In women’s organisms that disease can declare itself in abnormal discharges from the vagina, lower entric pain, which happens during or after sex, abnormal bleeding and burning with urination. All teenagers and young people must know about danger of gonorrhea. An untreated disease increases the risk of human immunodeficient virus many times. The infection can spread beyond the genital area to the skin, bloodstream, articulations and heart. Disseminated Gonococcal Infection characterizes by multiple skin alterations, arthritis and fever. Also untreated gonorrhea can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, chronic menstrual problems, urinary tract infections, miscarriage, endometritis and cervical discharge. There are several different laboratory tests, which can find the gonorrhoeal bacteria. Gonorrhoeal infections can be healed with antibiotics. It is of great importance to talk to your partner that you both need to protect your sexual health. Young people should cancel the sex contacts for one full week from the time their antibiotic treatment started.
Herpes is a sexually transmitted disease, which is caused by herpes simplex virus. It is passed from person to person through direct, so-called skin-to-skin, contact during oral, anal and vaginal sex. Usually the symptoms are fever blisters and cold sores on the mouth or on the genital organs. Herpes is a serious disease because once the virus appeared in your system; it stays there forever, very often with periodic symptoms or without them at all. Herpes can lead to psychological distress because of the nature of the sores and the length of time the infection is in your body. The open sores of herpes play an important role in the spread of HIV. Pregnant women who have the first period of genital herpes near delivery may pass the infection to their infant. It could be a very serious problem, even deadly problem. Condoms provide incomplete protection against herpes. A person and his or her sex partner should avoid sexual intercourse if they have the herpes virus when sores are present.
AIDS is deciphered as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. It is a certain number of health problems caused by a virus called HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (Bandura A., 1997). HIV is passed from person to person through exchange of bodily fluids. It can be blood, semen and vaginal fluids. They are transmitted during anal, vaginal, oral sex or when exchanging needles during intravenous drug use. Persons who have a positive test for HIV don’t necessarily have AIDS. A lot of people with HIV+ do not show symptoms of the disease for years, if at all. Nevertheless, persons who really have AIDS can get seriously ill and usually die from infectious diseases such as Kaposi’s sarcoma (a skin cancer), PCP (a lung infection), CMV (bad infection of the eyes) and candida (a fungal infection). Also AIDS causes severe weight loss, brain tumors and a lot of other health problems, which can kill the infected person and usually don’t cause any problems to other people with HIV-. There is no cure for AIDS. Though in contemporary times there are some anti-retroviral drugs. They can slow down the virus and the utter destruction of a person’s immune system. In order to steer clear of transmission of the infection to your sex partners and to protect your own body from the virus it is recommended to discuss your HIV status with a supposed partner before having sex. Of course the only way to be 100% sure that you will not have HIV/AIDS is to refuse sex and intravenous drug use.
The special type of bacteria called T. Pallidum can cause syphilis, the next sexually transmitted disease. There are four main stages of the infection such as primary, secondary, latent and tertiary. The symptoms of primary stage can be noticed from 2 – 12 weeks after being exposed. During this stage people may not notice one or more chancres, because they are inside the anus or vagina. Later the skin sore can appear on penis, vaginal lips, scrotum or mouth. Such chancres usually are not painful and people do not cure them. The sores will disappear after several weeks but the person remains infected without treatment. The symptoms of the second stage are the skin rash, which shows up on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.
Some scientists call syphilis “the great imitator”, because it has similar symptoms to many other health problems. Among them are: swollen glands in different areas of the body, patchy hair loss, fever, exhaustion, weight loss and headache. This stage of the infection has also additional symptoms, like syphilis warts and white patches, which are highly infectious. The secondary stage of the disease lasts from one to three months, sometimes longer. Latent syphilis can be found only by a blood test, because it has no symptoms. It continues for life if a person doesn’t treat it. Untreated latent stage leads the person to the last stage of the disease. Tertiary (late) syphilis causes serious damage to different organs and body systems, brain, liver, bones. It can cause blindness, mental problems, paralysis, heart failure and death (Mary-Ann Shafer, 2006).
Summary
The human organs, including brain, can be damaged by syphilis. Syphilis infection makes human immunodeficiency virus easier to catch and to give to sex partner. Syphilis is curable with proper diagnosis and treatment. To avoid it and stay sexually healthy teenagers and young people must use condoms consistently and correctly.
References
Adams, Gerald R., Thomas P. Gullotta, and Carol Markstrom-Adams. (1994). Adolescent Life Experiences. Pacific Grove, Calif.: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
Balk, David E. (1995). Adolescent Development: Early Through Late Adolescence. Pacific Grove, Calif.: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
Bandura, Albert. (1997). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Cobb, Nancy J. (1998). Adolescence: Continuity, Change, and Diversity. Mountain View, Calif.: Mayfield Publishing Company.
Mary-Ann Shafer, Anna-Barbara Moscicki. (2006). Sexually Transmitted Infections. New York: Free Press.