By Shellie Wolfson, 16, Contributor
 

My friends and I worry a lot about getting pregnant. We don’t worry as much about getting a sexually transmitted disease (STD). This may be because we think you can easily tell if someone has an STD just by looking at him or her. But when it comes to something like STDs, guesswork should not be involved. Recently, I learned this lesson the hard way, when I contracted chlamydia.

Last summer, I had unprotected sex with a boy, who looked totally innocent, like he’d never had sex and couldn’t possibly have an STD. I now know that looking innocent doesn’t mean anything when it comes to STDs; I took a big risk by having unprotected sex with him.

Photo by prusakolep

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By Lauren McLeod, 18, Contributor

As I walked into the exam room for my first gynecological exam, I had no reason to think that anything would be “wrong” with me. I was there because I had been sexually active and I wanted birth control pills. The exam was routine and the Pap test was nowhere near as bad as I had feared—a bit awkward, perhaps, but not painful or even uncomfortable. I left the doctor’s office with no health concerns of any kind—or so I thought.
 

Several days later, my blood work came back fine, but the doctor said that ...

By Elizabeth Gyori, 17, Sex, Etc. Staff Writer

He was 17. She was 15. They were only separated by two years, but Genarlow Wilson ended up in jail with a 10-year prison sentence for “aggravated child molestation” after receiving consensual oral sex from the 15-year-old girl. Why? In Georgia, it was considered a felony for teenagers under 16 to engage in oral sex. Despite the “victim’s” admission that she agreed to and initiated oral sex on Wilson, he was convicted, sentenced and imprisoned.

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By Rhonda Reid , 17, Contributor

“Don’t worry, I can just pull out.”
“I won’t even feel anything with a condom on.”
“Come on, condoms just make me softer.”

The excuses go on and on. The bottom line is that he wants to have sex with you without any protection. Luckily, I’ve never had any of these lines cooed in my ear, but I have had unprotected sex and put myself at risk. Something that feels really good in the moment can lead to regret.

I’d had sex before, but used protection. But one afternoon on the weekend of my birthday, I decided to try sex without a condom. I thought that it would feel good, and I’d heard from my friends that it feels better for guys without any protection. So I told my boyfriend to skip the condom. He was skeptical, but we did it anyway.

By Joshua Dickinson, 19, Contributor

In the waiting room of the Young Men’s Health Clinic in New York City, my heart settled in the bottom of my stomach. I was waiting to interview the director of the clinic, Dr. David Bell, and to get tested for HIV. I would be videotaped to show people just how easy it is to get tested. I hadn’t had unprotected sex. But I still had this nervous weight in my stomach because I didn’t know what to expect.

Finally Dr. Bell invited me into his office. He explained the impor...

“We just wanted to let you know that your test results came back positive.”

I could not believe what I was hearing. The nurse’s voice on the other end of the phone line was friendly, but distant, and I found myself barely able to choke out a weak “thank you” before hanging up.

I tested positive for herpes.

Finding Out

My boyfriend and I had used a condom. We had been careful. I hadn’t seen anything that looked like a sore or a rash. But when I couldn’t urinate without tears coming to my eyes from the intense pain, I knew something was very wrong.

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By Karen Choucrallah, 17, Sex, Etc.

Maybe you’ve heard the recent news that one in four girls between the ages of 14 and 19 in the United States has a sexually transmitted disease (STD). That’s 3.2 million girls! What’s that about?! The good news is that three-quarters of teen girls don’t have an STD. But what about that one in four? Check out my top-ten reasons why I think one in four teen girls has an STD.

1) “Just say no” to sex doesn’t work for some teens.
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