Researchers study Europeans’ teen sex lives
As part of a pilot project aimed at reducing unwanted pregnancies, the Isle of Wight is now allowed to sell birth control pills even to 13-year old girls, without any parental guidance.
Girls will be allowed to take a month’s supply of contraceptives; a month after which they will be urged to meet a general practitioner or sexual health nurse.
According to Jennifer Smith of the local branch of the National Health Service, which approved the project: "I would suggest that what we're doing is being entirely responsible by providing [contraception to] these most vulnerable women, for whom, for the most part, pregnancy is not a good outcome. We are linking them with people most able to support them in further decision-making and appropriate behavior in the future."
BBC plans to make a documentary on the link between oral sex and rising cases of oral cancers, after the study is being conducted. Researchers have noted that this form of cancer has gone up by 50 per cent in men, since 1989, and is rising by 3 per cent in women every year. A human papilloma virus, which spreads through oral sex, is doubted to be the major reason for increasing occurrence.
In the first place, they noted that the Brits handle teen pregnancy differently. Further, teen sex and pregnancy is not a thing just in Europe. U.S. is known to be having the highest rate of teen pregnancies. It is also noted that American teens use lesser condoms and contraceptives as compared to the rest of the world, there by leading to higher rates of HIV.
According to The National Survey of Sexual Health and Behavior, 61 per cent of them have had oral sex before they graduate. Recent study analyzing sex lives of 600 high school students in California found that those ninth grade teens who had oral sex were 25 per cent likely to have an intercourse very soon, and eleventh grade students had a 50 per cent chance of having sex by the end of the grade. Like Gawker says “Oral sex is the gateway drug to vaginal sex.”
As of now, the Health and Human Services agency has not yet included contraception among its preventive health care services, however researchers noted that they could be more open with these teens, and discuss the risks of teen pregnancy.