Wake County Offers Teen Pregnancy, STDs Workshop

6/8/2007

Wake County Human Services will present a seminar on "My Body, My Choice, My Future" for male and female teens and their parents Saturday, June 9, 2007, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Wake County Commons Building, 4011 Carya Drive, Raleigh.

The statistics are alarming. According to the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coalition of North Carolina, statewide 18,727 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 became pregnant in 2005 (the latest year for which statistics are available). Twenty-nine percent of pregnancies were repeat pregnancies for the same age group. The number of 10 to 14 year olds who became pregnant in 2005 could fill nine school buses.

Teen pregnancy rates have decreased in Wake County by 45 percent since 1990. However, concern for exposure to sexually transmitted diseases (STD's) remains high.

Locally, Chlamydia is the number-one STD for ages 15 to 24. Gonorrhea is the second-highest STD in Wake County.

"The scariest part of this, of course, is that if teens are still getting Chlamydia and gonorrhea, they are not using protection, and are thus wide open for exposure to HIV," said Carolyn Stokes, physician extender for the Human Services Women's and Teen Clinic.

"Teens need to be taught about these things, and knowledge is power."

Saturday's workshop participants will learn about the social and physical consequences of teen pregnancy. In addition, Wake County Human Services has a Teen Clinic on Mondays from 3 to 7 p.m. Classes encourage abstinence and discuss STD's, birth control, dating violence, substance use and any other topics of interest to teens.

For more information, contact Carolyn Stokes at 250-1265.

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