Doctors say that sex education is essential for adolescents and teenagers in particular, so it should start in elementary school with introductory concepts and then continue throughout the school years.
Intimate life should be started at maturity SOURCE Pixabay
Romania is the country with the most underage mothers in the European Union. In 2020 alone, more than 16,000 teenage girls in our country gave birth to children.
According to Save the Children, the birth of a child at a young age can come with numerous problems for both the young mother and the baby.
Precisely to reduce the number of underage mothers, many specialists campaigned for the introduction of sex education in schools.
Specialists such as doctor Corneliu Saradan from the Botoșani Public Health Directorate, prevention specialist, show that health education, including sex education, can save the population from many unwanted problems. He testifies that a sexual life postponed until after the age of 18 would reduce and more the risks.
Sex education could be taught as early as the third grade
Doctor Corneliu Saradan is one of the promoters of introducing health education as a subject in the school curriculum. Moreover, he claims that sex education would be appropriate starting from the 3rd grade, then repeated in cycles, with increasingly complex themes, with advancing age and enriching knowledge of anatomy.
“Health education includes sex education. It is a component. I proposed, for example, as the beginning of the 3rd grade. Let's discuss, to begin with the genitals, that there are differences between girls and boys, generally matters of anatomy, as naturally as possible. Because otherwise there are curiosities. He is in the 7th grade, which is the period when he enters puberty, and since he still does anatomy and physiology at school, it is time to supplement this education for health, including sex education. Then in high school, somewhere in the 11th grade, when anatomy is learned again, it can be supplemented with health education. Nothing forced”says Dr. Corneliu Saradan.
A sex life started, at the earliest, after the end of adolescence
The Botošan specialist also draws attention to the early start of sexual life. He says that young people are ready for intimate relationships after the age of 18. And the reasons are related to different maturation from a physical and mental point of view.
“The later the better! The greater will be the happiness! I mean, after 18 years. There is a biological maturation and it must be doubled by a psychological maturation. Psychological maturity is somewhere around the age of 20. We should not rush to start our sexual life because we are not yet psychologically mature and we do not make the right decisions when we make different choices”states the doctor from Botošan.
The consequences of lack of sex education
In addition, the lack of sex education, doubled by a sex life started too early, can lead to serious consequences, such as unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases.
“Lack of sex education leads to unwanted pregnancies, additional expenses for the family, sexually transmitted infections, let's not forget that HPV is the main cause of cervical cancer, for which we have a vaccine, but we don't use it”says Dr. Saradan.
In addition, underage mothers are more likely to give birth to premature babies.
“It's not about physiology, because the body helps them. And here it depends, if we are talking about a pregnancy of a minor at an extreme age, 13-14 years old, it is something else. But a minor, close to adulthood, can carry a pregnancy well, but it involves other indirect problems. In minor mothers there is a risk of prematurity because often the pregnancy is not followed up, not investigated, it associates certain complications that can normally be prevented. Many teenage girls either don't understand the importance of tracking a pregnancy or keep it hidden.” says neonatologist Carmen Zaboloteanu.
The situation gets more complicated when teenage girls come from more isolated rural areas or from poor families with social problems. The situation is serious worldwide. In the 15-19 age group, 15 million teenage girls said they use modern methods of contraception, while 23 million said they do not use any method of contraception.
“Sex education and family planning is the best investment for the future. We shouldn't be embarrassed to discuss sexuality and we need to clarify certain things”concludes Dr. Corneliu Saradan.
