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#LetsTalkSex: Ahmedabad teenagers have 50 percent of STDs that people twice their age have

We need to talk about SEX

Do you remember that time your parents sat you down for that all-too-crucial sex education talk?

Chances are that you are scratching your head at this question. Don’t worry, we don’t either.

Maybe this is the reason why teens between 15-19 years of age are contracting nearly half as many sexually-transmitted diseases prevalent in adults twice their age in Ahmedabad.

According to the reports published by the Times of India, a team of doctors from NHL Municipal College at Shardaben Hospital studied teens who were sexually active with their partners and suffered Sexually Transmitted Disease (STDs).

The study conducted by Jigna Barot, Avanita Solanki, Neela Patel, Khushboo Modi, Miral Bodar of the department of dermatology, AMC-MET Medical College, and NHL Medical College revealed that 381 teens, 200 boys and 181 girls, nearly 77% of boys and 51% of girls said they were sexually active with partners.

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Among teenage girls, nearly 69% (126) had vulvovaginal discharge — which may have resulted from a yeast infection, 9.4% had bacterial vaginosis and 8% had herpes progenitalis. Among the boys, nodular scabies infection was found in 62%, 10.5% had genital molluscum, while 9.5% had herpes progenitalis.

While talking to the leading daily, Anita Mehta, a councilor with a school in Satellite told,

The majority of teens are uncomfortable talking to their parents about sex. Such children are very unlikely to ask for help when unusual symptoms appear and they need to be tested or treated for a sexually transmitted infection.

She further added that parents should talk about sex with their kids in the early teens.