By Thompson Perry
As a sexual health educator, Kari Kuka has heard some of the craziest and most incorrect myths and rumors about sex among college students. Though it’s a part of the job she encounters daily, she still cringes at how misinformed college students can be when it comes to sex. “One girl I met this summer believed that herpes was more of a problem now than in the past because of the popularity of beer pong,” she said. That is just a small part of the misinformation that college students have and perpetuate about sexual intercourse, and it makes the task of Kuka and other sexual health educators all the more difficult.
Kuka, who visited the University of Louisville on Thursday as a part of Trojan Condom’s Evolve Tour of college campuses, believes that college students here and around the country are largely misinformed about sex and the consequences it entails.
“People need this information,” said Kuka of knowledge about sexual intercourse. “People want this information.”
If young people do indeed want this information, most expert sources attest that they simply are not getting it. According to Simeon Ritz of Planned Parenthood, this information has to get to students before they can avoid the pitfalls that come with ignorance about sexual health.
“Young people are pretty much kept in the dark when it comes to learning about sex and the consequences,” said Ritz. “Parents still don’t know how to handle these questions when their children ask, which every child eventually, inevitably will.”
Ritz goes on to suggest that Kentucky’s state policy on sexual education doesn’t help students in the long run.
“Kentucky sticks with the abstinence-only method of sexual education,” said Ritz. “That’s all fine and good, seemingly responsible, but what about the students who don’t practice abstinence? They’re the majority, you know, and they get no information about contraception and birth control, diseases and the like.”
Though Ritz and many others argue that this information needs to reach young people, not all university students are convinced; some believe that giving young adults this information only encourages them to use it.
“I think that if you teach kids all about sex, you could be encouraging them to have sex too soon,” said freshman undecided major Beth Armstrong. “That’s not a good thing. It really just depends on so many personal things.”
One of these “personal things” in play is priorities, and experts say that college students aren’t prioritizing enough when it comes to having sex.
Even when students have the knowledge necessary to make responsible decisions about sex, they often don’t. Whether they cite decreased pleasure or just being caught up in the moment, many students have unprotected sex with their partners, which experts warn puts them at risk for disease and pregnancy.
Some students, however, believe that unsafe sex is too dangerous for students. Senior communication major Chris Prentice urges young people to look at the big picture and think of the lasting effects their sexual actions may have.
“Eighteen years of servitude isn’t worth a minute of increased pleasure,” said Prentice, citing unwanted pregnancy and the ensuing 18 years of taking care of a child, as a deterrent for students who may be considering having unprotected sexual intercourse.
Armstrong agrees that an unplanned pregnancy isn’t worth the risk of unsafe sex.
“If you have a kid, that changes your life forever,” said Armstrong. “I don’t think most of us in college now are ready for that kind of a responsibility. It’s really important that we are aware of how our decisions can affect our futures.”
Some of Armstrong’s peers, however, may not place as great an emphasis on the future.
According to a September 2006 report by the Guttmacher Institute, two-thirds of unintended pregnancies among teenage girls are among the 18 and 19-year-old demographic, the ages at which most young students enter college.
Kuka contends that these problems stem from the lack of sexual health education programs available in most colleges.
“There needs to be peer education programs, and all resident assistants, directors, etc. need to know and teach [sexual health education],” said Kuka.
Kuka went on to state that only with this education can students make wiser, informed choices regarding sexual activity.
“People 25 years or younger think that as long as the female is on the pill they don’t need to use a condom,” said Kuka. “There’s so much misinformation out there.”
On campus, students have a number of options to exterminate that misinformation and stay safe when it comes to their sexual health: Campus Health Services, located between the Student Activities Center and the Houchens Building, offers free condoms in waiting rooms, along with a number of other services, such as the HPV Vaccine, Pap Testing and free HIV testing.
According to Kuka, the signs are encouraging in spite of the strides that she feels still need to be made.
“Tons of people came out,” said Kuka of the sexual health events she has attended at U of L and other schools across the nation. “People want information about sexual health.”
