If you have been hoping that our public schools have been doing a better job of teaching students about the ways to prevent pregnancy and spreading STDs, then I’m sorry to tell you that this does not seem to be the case.

As reported by The Huffington Post, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a study of the data from public high schools in 45 states. This was part of the organization’s biennial School Health Profiles. The organization found that between 2008 and 2010, 11 states saw decreases in the number of schools that taught this information to middle school students. There were no states that saw in increase in the teaching of these important topics. Read the rest of this entry »

When I was in middle school and high school, I dreaded the one week each year that was devoted to sex education. We were taught a very strict abstinence-only form of sex ed, but I do remember one year when a teacher actually told us about condoms and other forms of protection. I always thought this form of sex ed was pretty common. However, if I were currently a student in New York City’s public schools, I could be expecting a very different curriculum, which will be starting this year.

The newly instated sex ed curriculum in these public schools will be much more advanced than what has been taught for the past 20 years. This curriculum will include traditional sex ed lessons, while also teaching students how to use a condom and discussing the appropriate age for sexual activity to begin.

The new curriculum is being instated in order to help black and Latino teens improve their lives. According to the Bloomberg administration, these teens are much more likely to have unplanned pregnancies or contract a STD.

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We all know that you need to be careful about what you put up on Facebook. Those drunken pictures from last weekend might come back to bite you when a future employer is doing a background check on you. But what about sending information to your friends? Turns out, that might not be the best idea either.

Karen Owen graduated from Duke University in 2010. She recently compiled a 42-slide Powerpoint presentation titled “An Education Beyond the Classroom: Excelling in the Realm of Horizontal Academics.” In this presentation, Owen gives detailed accounts of 13 Duke athletes she had been sexually involved with. She ranks each guy, according to their physiques, sexual prowess, and other factors. Read the rest of this entry »

Typically, students go to college and are graded on what they learn. Now, the shoe is on the other foot because Trojan Condoms is grading schools on how well they teach students…about sexual education.

Trojan Condoms recently released its Sexual Health Report Card. This report grades schools on 12 areas of sexual health, including the availability of condoms on campus, STI testing locations, and if the school offers any lecture programs about safe sex.

“Students are really rallying to get their hands on accurate and intelligent material with respect to sexuality,” said Logan Levkoff, a PhD certified sexologist. “They’re fighting for classes, they’re fighting for access to services.” Read the rest of this entry »

Almost 50 percent of teens are sexually active, and more than 80 percent of these teens are using some sort of birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies or protect against STDs. Unfortunately, a new report shows that one form of birth control that is meant to make having sex safer for users is actually causing injury and death.

Johnson & Johnson released Ortho Evra, commonly known as the birth control patch, in 2002, and it has been wildly successful ever since. Time magazine named it one the best inventions of the year, and since then, doctors have written almost 40 million prescriptions for this method of birth control.

However, a new report shows that there are some serious downsides to this product. Patient reports have revealed that users are 12 times more likely to suffer a stroke while taking this product and 18 times more likely to develop a blood clot, compared to tradition birth control pills.

The birth control patch delivers a continuous and high level of estrogen to the user for a week straight. Some experts suspect this elevated level of the hormone is what is causing the problem. Read the rest of this entry »