For and against: Doctors should advise adolescents to abstain from sex  For  Against

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7275.1520

BMJ 2000;321:1520-1522 ( 16 December )

Education and debate

For and against

Doctors should advise adolescents to abstain from sex

For

Against

Doctors should advise adolescents to abstain from sex

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Against a background of high rates of teenage pregnancy and an increasing prevalence of sexually transmitted infections, thesexual conduct of young people is vigorously debated. Many teenagerslater say that they had sexual intercourse "too early" $---$ but shoulddoctors be advising young people to abstain from sex? Trevor Stammers,who is a tutor in general practice and an author and broadcasteron sexual health, and Roger Ingham, who has done research on sexualconduct and sex education in Britain and other countries, considerwhether advising abstinence is an effective response to decliningteenage sexualhealth.

Trevor Stammers, tutor.

Department of General Practice, St George's Hospital Medical School, London SW17 0RE

Correspondence to: T Stammers, Church Lane Practice, London SW19 3NY stammtg@globalnet.co.uk

Recent trends in adolescent sexual health in the United Kingdom are cause for concern. In England alone, almost 90 000 teenagersbecame pregnant in 1997. Slightly fewer than 7700 of these girlswere less than 16 years old, and about half had abortions.¹In 1995-7, the rate of increase in gonorrhoea among 16-19 yearolds was 45% $---$ the highest increase . . . [Full text of this article]

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