| home | teen pregnancy | parenting | marriage & love | adoption | abortion | |
| home >> teen pregnancy >> faqs |
|
| Related
Articles: Pregnancy Complications Think You're Pregnant? "Morning" Sickness My Message For Stacy Statistics Teen Pregnancy Prevention My Pregnancy Journal My Story Dealing With Fear Related Sites: |
Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Teen Pregnancy & SexualityWhere indicated, statistics quoted from The National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy. 1. How do I know if I'm pregnant? How do I know if I'm pregnant? If you've missed a period that is a good indication. It's true, however, that some women still experience some light bleeding are still pregnant. The best thing to do if you're not sure is get an over the counter pregnancy test from either a local pregnancy center, a local drug store, Wal*Mart or other such store. They range from 5 dollars to 15 dollars depending on where you go and where you live. (If you go to a pregnancy center, they're free.) These are very effective from the first day of your missed period. There are other pregnancy symptoms like swollen, tender breasts, morning sickness, etc, but not all women experience these symptoms. You will need to go to a doctor right away to get started on prenatal vitamins and prenatal care to give you and the baby the best chance of being healthy. Can I get pregnant the first time I have sex? Yes. In fact if you have unprotected sex there is a 90% chance you will become pregnant the first year you're sexually active. It only takes one time. The likelihood of pregnancy depends on how close you are to ovulation. But even if you are on your period and it's your first time, you can still get pregnant. Can I get pregnant or get diseases if I only have oral sex? You can't get pregnant but you can get sexually transmitted diseases including ones with no cure like AIDS, herpes, and others. How can I remain sexually pure? If you are committed to remaining sexually pure then you have to stick to some commonsense guidelines in your dating relationships. If you really like someone an are really attracted to them, it's natural to want to be close to them but don't rush things! Set boundaries and stick to them. Spend time together only in public places. Don't spend long periods of time alone together in places like each other's bedrooms or at home when your parents aren't there. You might consider a promise ring or pledge card or some other tangible reminder of your commitment. And most of all, find someone you can be accountable to like your parents, a pastor or mentor, a counselor, or even an older sibling who's made the same commitment as you. If a guy (or girl) doesn't respect your commitment, reconsider the relationship. Don't let anyone pressure you or make you feel stupid for not wanting to have sex with them! Do teens who had sex wish they had waited? Yes. In a recent poll, 63 percent of teens who have had sexual intercourse said they wish they had waited. More than one-half of teen boys (55 percent) and nearly three of four teen girls (72 percent) surveyed said they wish they had waited longer to have sex. Sixty-four percent of teens also said the advice they'd give a younger sibling or friend would be: "Don't have sex until you're at least out of high school, but, if you do, be sure to protect yourself against pregnancy and STDs." That comes to eight in ten girls and six in ten boys say they wish they had waited until they were older to have sex.- TNCTPTP Can you get pregnant if you're on the pill or use other birth control? Yes. All methods of birth control have failure rates ranging from .01% for Norplant to 20% for the withdrawal method. Even combining different types of contraception can still leave you vulnerable to pregnancy. This is true even if you use something correctly and every single time you have sex. Teen mothers are less likely to complete high school, (only one-third receive a high school diploma) and more likely to end up on welfare (nearly 80 percent of unmarried teen mothers end up on welfare). -TNCTPTP What happens to children of teen mothers? The children of teenage mothers have lower birth weights, are more likely to perform poorly in school, and are at greater risk of abuse and neglect. The sons of teen mothers are 13 percent more likely to end up in prison while teen daughters are 22 percent more likely to become teen mothers themselves. -TNCTPTP Nearly 40 percent of the fathers of children born to teen mothers are age 20 or older. Only 20 percent of the fathers marry the teen mothers of their first children. On average, the remaining 80 percent pay less than $800 annually for child support. - TNCTPTP Do most teens chose to get married when they find out about the pregnancy? No. In 1960, only 15 percent of teen births were to unmarried teens. In 2000, 79 percent of teen births were to unmarried teens. - TNCTPTP Are there really a lot of teens who don't have sex? Yes. More than one-half of high-school students have never had sex. In fact, choosing to abstain is more popular than ever. No. Fewer than one-half of high-school students have had sex. - TNCTPTP How do I know I'm ready for sex? There are a couple of key questions you can ask yourself that will make it really easy to see if you're ready. Are you ready to have a baby? Children are natural consequences of having sex with or without birth control. Contraception helps your odds of not getting pregnant but it doesn't get rid of the possibility. Every time you have sex, you are risking pregnancy and disease. The healthiest and best choice is to have one partner. It's called monogamy and it means more than just one partner at a time, it means one partner for life. Are you ready to join body and soul with another person in the most intimate way possible? This question seems harder to answer but really it comes down to your commitment. If you're not going to be with this person forever that means there will be other people - other sexual partners. How many is too many? Are you looking forward to being 30 with a string of 10, 20, or 50 past partners? Exactly what kind of relationship do you want to have right now? How many ex's do you want to remember for the rest of your life? Sex isn't trivial. It's a serious commitment which is why it's a key component in marrige. If you're not ready to marry this person, you're not ready to have sex with him or her. What works to prevent teen pregnancy? Actually, the answer seems to be parents. Check out these research findings: The primary reason that teenage girls who have never had intercourse give for abstaining from sex is that having sex would be against their religious or moral values. Other reasons cited include desire to avoid pregnancy, fear of contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD), and not having met the appropriate partner. Three of four girls and over half of boys report that girls who have sex do so because their boyfriends want them to. Teenagers who have strong emotional attachments to their parents are much less likely to become sexually active at an early age. Parents rate high among many teens as trustworthy and preferred information sources on birth control. One in two teens say they "trust" their parents most for reliable and complete information about birth control, only 12 percent say a friend. Teens who have been raised by both parents (biological or adoptive) from birth, have lower probabilities of having sex than teens who grew up in any other family situation. At age 16, 22 percent of girls from intact families and 44 percent of other girls have had sex at least once. Similarly, teens from intact, two-parent families are less likely to give birth in their teens than girls from other family backgrounds. - TNCTPTP |
