Sex education is vitally important for young people, but what it fails to recognise is that there is more to it that simply STDs and pregnancy. The emotionally and psychologically scarring effects that sex can have could be affecting teenagers more than we think, especially for girls who are more likely to suffer from depression and attempt suicidal than boys. For both genders, though, emotional risks are high with sex during this time.
Stress from fear of pregnancy and disease
The risk of pregnancy is high if you’re uneducated and new to sex, and for many teenagers this is a risk that leads to them being emotionally fraught. However, during puberty teens are naturally curious about this act that they are suddenly physically primed for. There is a 15 percent chance of the condom breaking during sex, a fact which scares many people that they could be at risk of an unwanted pregnancy, STDs or HIV/AIDs. School nurses often report that they have teenage girls crying because they’re worried that they’ve caught something from their first sexual experiences. This worry can scar the joys of carefree teenage life and can affect their overall wellbeing.
Feelings of regret
Regret is a common feeling after sex, particularly if it is your first time, for a number of reasons. Teenage girls tend to have an expectation, emotionally, of what their first time will be like and it very rarely delivers. Girls may start to feel cheated if they begin being ignored by the person they lost their virginity to. A recent study discovered that many people wish they’d abstained from sex during their teenage years due to regret about the act.
Abortion
The risk of pregnancy, as previously stated, is always present and often this risk can become a reality. In many cases, this results in an abortion for teenage girls which is loaded with emotional hazards. This act can lead to depression, guilt, anxiety, nightmares and a loss of self worth. Up to 70 percent of women who get an abortion do it against their better judgement, but feel that they have no other choice, which leads to regret and shame. While teens may consider abortion as just something they have to do, it can have repercussions later in life when they’re better equipped to realise what they’ve done.
Guilt
Guilt can affect teens strongly, as they may feel that they’ve done morally wrong in having sex so young or with someone they may not really care that deeply for. This is especially the case if the act took place under the influence of alcohol or drugs, often making the individual make bad decisions about the person they have sex with. If the guilt is due to religious reasons, this can be a sense of shame as well as the guilt of doing it so young. Boys tend to feel guilty that they didn’t deliver against the expectations that their partner had of the act. Counselors state that many teenagers worry about the guilt of having sex without precaution, or that they didn’t wait for someone they were in a long term relationship with.
Loss of self esteem
Teenage sex can quickly deteriorate into a sense of low self esteem and loss of self worth. Because teen sex is often with causal partners, they can end up regretting it the next morning. The risk of diseases can exacerbate this, if they catch a disease and then feel bad for not being more careful with their body. Counselors find that girls, in particular, face this emotional trauma after having sex with people during their teenage years.