Today in Connections we had to go and listen to these speakers talk to us about sex and std's. When I first heard about the presentation last week I was not at all looking forward to it. All I could think of were the stupid little presentations from high school and how they said use condom for safe sex. Well today changed all of my views.
The presenters today showed us how easily STD's can change a persons life. When a male or female contracts these diseases they do incredible damage. Nine times out of ten a person won't even know that they have a sexually transmitted disease until it is too late, and because you can't see the disease or know that it is there one can very easily pass the disease on to their partner without even knowing it.
Did you know that you can use a comdom and still become infected with an STD? All it takes is one drop or one quick touch before you can have a disease and all of that can happen before a couple even gets to a condom. Or even that the storage of a condom can take lower its effectivness? Well it can! So even using a condom isn't always safe as they say it is.
They also showed us a slide show of some of the diseases and how they affect a person. It is incredibly gross what some of these things look like. The other thing that really grossed me out was the fact that some of the diseases can be contracted in areas other than in your genital area! One example they showed was an example of a guy who had an std on his mouth. He could transmit that disease to whoever he kissed and he could lie to that person and they can come down with the disease just as easily! It was incredible the kind of damage people can have done to them.
They told us that it was sad, but women and children get the worst of it and I agree with them. If a woman contracts one of these diseases she can basically kiss having children goodbye because if it is a viral std there is no way she can have kids without some affect on the child. Now I may be jumping to conclusions here, but that scares me. The fact that someone can actually pass an STD onto a child while they are being born just makes me sick.
Some STD's a person can get are Gonorrhea, Herpes, Syphilis, and Hepatitis B.
There are at least 20 more known STD's out there today. There are more out there yet to be known and thousands of people a day are diagnosed with an STD. If you are sexually active, go and get tested please. It could save your life and the life of your partner.
Here are some sites you can go to to do a little bit of research on the subject or just go to google and type in STD or Sexually Transmitted Disease and you will find a ton of sites to help you!
http://alwaysyourchoice.com/ayc/sex/std/std.php
http://www.niad.nih.gov/factsheets/stdinfo.htm
Every time a student hears that, "Oh there is going to be an AIDS/SEX presentation today," many say, "Great, an excuse to skip class." Well, I disagree with that anywho because I thought it was a great presentation up until the slideshow of the wonders of vegetables! First of all, the first lady who spoke was powerful and extremely outstanding. She did not have to share that she had an abortion when she was a teen, but has the guts to mention it to us, PLUS, is nice enough to teach us new facts about AIDS/STDS. There was some items she mentioned that I had no clue about, up until she presented them. She was great, I thank her plenty.
Off of my positive feedback, to my negative... I did not enjoy the presentation of pictures that were presented to us. The pictures were gruesome, but it kind of will make SOME people realize, "Hey I don't want to look like that." But some on the other hand will ignore the information that was presented about having sex. Then they will have to find out the consequences that proceed after having sex with a person who has AIDS/STDS. I honestly was sick to my stomach the rest of the day after watching those gooey pictures, yuk! Plus, I realized what I ate before I arrived at the presentation--- A juicy ground beef cheeseburger.
STAY WARM *BRRR and HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
OK, so the presentation was informative, useful, and persuasive...but does anyone else feel the references to anal cauliflower and the 65 year old woman telling us how much she loved sex were a bit over the top? Im glad you and your husband have a great sex life...just do us a favor? Keep it to yourself.
Ah, the wonders of viagra.
Amy: I think that yes we are old enough to make our own decisions and yes we have heard the same things over and over again in jr. high and high school, but there was something about this presentation that just made me shut up and listen (or watch as the case may be). Maybe it was being more mature now and actually paying attention during the presentation that shocked me the most. So I guess my answer to your question is no it didn't seem odd at all and no I definetly don't think that it was a waste of my time.
Karissa: Monogomy is the way for me too. That is the one gift I know that I can give to my future husband that I won't give to anyone else.
Donna: Did you feel the same way as most of us do now before going into the presentation? Did you feel that it was a waste of your time? Do you feel that you took away from the presentation anything that helped make a future decision or two on your own part?
Monogamy is OK with me--that's my choice, anyway. (I get the Catholic identity thing, it's just that I think perhaps the state should look a bit closer at the material in HS as opposed to what we were presented with yesterday. I would think that if highschoolers saw the things we did yesterday, maybe, just maybe they'd think twice about premarital sex or any sort of "messing around.")
There is no "safe" way, barring a battery of blood tests and monogamy, btw. Forgot to add that to my earlier post.
I'm pretty sure that comes from the whole Catholic Tradition of Seton Hill...they aren't allowed to "encourage" fornication, or to hand you a condom as you walk down the hallway.
yes, I did find that rather odd. I'm pretty sure that everyone got those kind of "be careful" talks in HS, but you know, it would make more sense if they were reversed--have the "wait" talks in HS, and have the "be safe" talks in college. This doesn't concern me, inparticularly, because I have no interest in becoming promiscuous or anything near that, but since we are in college, and supposedly "adults," some will take it upon themselves to prove their maturity and have sex. (What's always cracked me up about that is the fact that every human being on the face of the planet is capable of having sex, yet somehow having sex makes a person more mature in our society's eyes. In my eyes, a person is more mature for NOT having sex, but that's just me...)
I thought the presentation was informative, yes, but I also thought it was a waste of my time. I got the sex talks in high school, and I knew all that stuff from those talks. But, the thing is, with the high school sex talks, the presentor knows that a majority of us WILL in fact have sex. So, they mainly emphasize on how we should be careful and take precautions. Because there are ways you can be sure you won't get STDs. It just suprised me that we were getting a "wait for marriage to have sex" talk IN COLLEGE. Doesn't that seem a little odd? I think I'm old enough to make those decisions for myself.
When they gave us the presentation (in 1999), it wasn't nearly as informative. But it always makes me happy when people learn this stuff and are actually willing to be more careful. Yay! Thanks for informing the rest of the bloggers as well... it would be nice if Seton Hill were STD free.