Sex education, on examination

The sex education In many cases, adolescents are reduced to explaining how to avoid unwanted pregnancies and how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. And the condom is indicated as the great means to reduce these risks. Is the correct and complete sex education received in the last stretch of Compulsory Education?

Currently, statistics confirm that along with the increase in the use of condoms, we also witness the increase in sexually transmitted diseases, the advance in the age of initiation of sexual relations and the increase in teenage pregnancies. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is a broad consensus among political authorities, doctors and educators that sexual activity during adolescence is worrisome.

In Spain, the number of pregnancies in children under 18 is double that registered a decade ago. An analysis published in the British Medical Journal concludes that sex education that has been taught since 1970, has not achieved any of its objectives.

What is failing in Sex Education?

The causes of the high incidence of unhealthy sexual behavior, As the last "play of the dock", they can be varied. However, the problem does not seem to be due to a lack of information about sexuality. One study indicates that the majority of adolescent girls who became pregnant had gone to the health services in the previous year to receive information on contraceptives. It is also more frequent, among adolescents who abort, to have previously received the post-coital pill.

In the United Kingdom - the country with the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in Europe - contraceptives are widely publicized. In developing countries, where there seems to be more problems with AIDS, it is precisely where the condom message has best arrived.

It is possible that the excess of indiscriminate information and the scarcity of training in social skills may have favored some of the sexual health problems that were intended to be avoided.

ESO textbooks on sex education

This educational stage must offer a unitary educational response according to the degree of development and the psychological characteristics of the students. What do textbooks teach? Textbooks provide a partial view of human sexuality and can promote risk behaviors.

School textbooks, currently present in the market, are not a sufficient reference nor an optimal resource for the education of affectivity and sexuality in adolescence. First-hand information that must be provided by the family, in the first instance, and the teacher is necessary.

It is especially important, from the point of view of Public Health, to develop contents that allow students to acquire social skills that help them make more free and informed decisions aimed at delaying the start of sexual relations.

Sex education at home and at school: ideas to think

1. Does your child have doubts about when human life begins? There are very explanatory videos whose images clarify perfectly how fertilization takes place and how the new resulting organism is. Seeing them at home together as a family and commenting on them is essential for the education of the children.

2. Your child needs clear arguments and practical reasons to say "no" to premature sex, as well as saying no to drugs or alcohol. Clarify with him those arguments, think with him the ways and means of how to say no to a boy or girl who proposes sex, (or even to the boyfriend or girlfriend) and how to defend their positions without feeling "weirdo" " Remind him that sexuality is linked to personal maturity and not only to biological maturity.

3. I would also have to defend those same arguments in class, in the case that the textbooks or the teacher approach sexuality in a way different from their convictions. But it is true that at these ages they do not want to be labeled as "retro". Help him acquire that security, with a sense of humor. People who defend their positions, respecting those of others, in the long run are admired for their coherence.

4. Go ahead to what your son is going to study. If you are in 2nd or 3rd of ESO, look before the chapter of the textbook that talks about reproduction and sexuality. Then read the chapter with him before he studies it at school. Your approach must always be ahead of the one you receive in the classroom.

Ignacio Gómara Urdiain, Bachelor in Biological Preventive Medicine and Public Health. Faculty of Medicine, University of Navarra

Jokin de Irala, Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Public Health. Professor of University Preventive Medicine and Public Health. university of Navarra