1 in 4 teen girls

This has bothered me all day! How is this possible? I was shocked. Even more shocking were the statisitcs for African American teenage girls and STD's---it rose to almost 50% testing positive. (per the Today show this morning.)
I am seriously scared for my daughter to grow up.

The statistician in me is wondering where they got these numbers. Did they take the total number of infections and divide by the total number of girls, because that's not a good scientific way of doing it. For example, this method does not take into account that some girls may have multiple infections, skewing the numbers (If there are 5 girls in the world - makes the math easy - and one gets 2 STDs, the rate of girls infected is 20%, one girl in 5, but if you look at the # of infections/girl you get 40%, 2 infections amongst 5 girls. Since a girl can get more than 1 STD at a time, based on what her partner exposed her to, it's much more misleading).

Also, the feminist in me is wondering who these girls are getting these infections from. The boys. But news outlets don't feel it necessary to report the STD rate in boys. Granted, the rate does not necessarily have to be the same, but come on, shouldn't it at least be reported what it is. Is one boy sleeping around with a lot of girls, or are lots of boys and girls affected.

The feminist in me also says girls should be vaccinated against HPV (although I have boys, so it's an easier decision for me). HPV disproportionately affects women. I would hope that a girl is choosy about who she sleeps with, but that doesn't guarantee anything. Lets assume that a woman took her virginity very seriously, and did not have sex before marriage. She might marry a man who had sex before marriage in his teen years, but then thought better of it and didn't have sex again before he married the woman. He could still bring disease into the marriage, disease that he never intended, and that she should not be punished for. I know this a a very specific hypothetical, but I'm tired of people being punished for sex.

I just want to say that I hope my kids abstain from sex at least through high school. I'm dreaming if I think they can make it to marriage - but if they can, wonderful. That said, I think too many parents hope their kids don't do it. If they have a talk, they might focus on the negative as getting pregnant - and frankly some girls look to get pregnant in hopes of snagging a boyfriend or husband.

But I don't think they spend enough time talking about STDs and what they can do to your health. I think some parents avoid this talk because it's embarrassing or they don't want to promote certain behavior.

I think it's extreemely important to talk about condoms. Spermicide alone isn't good enough when you aren't married. I do think some parents think the condom talk condones sex but I think of it as giving your kids the right information. You don't want ignorance to be the reason they end up with herpes or HPV.

I'm also planning to look into the HPV vaccination - I've heard lots of negatives and positives. I haven't really focused on it because my kids are still too young for sex, but it won't be too many years before they are in middle school and high school.

Just thought I'd share the results of our azcentral.com poll on this subject. Here goes:

Are you surprised that a study revealed at least one in four teenage American girls has an STD?
No - 67.43%
Yes - 32.57%

Total Votes: 3261

Arizona Moms Editor Yvette Armendariz shares stories about raising her kids and tips for busy parents in her Time-starved (goddess) Mom blog. She and her husband are raising two children, ages 8 and 11.