Teaching Guide:
Be Aware of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)

OBJECTIVES

Participants will:

  • recognize that STDs are a serious threat to sexually active teens and how rapidly they can be spread;
  • understand that STDs are caused by both bacteria and viruses and that those caused by viruses cannot be cured;
  • understand that the only absolutely sure way to avoid contracting an STD is to abstain entirely from sex;
  • know how someone who is sexually active can reduce his or her risk of contracting an STD;
  • be able to identify the symptoms of some of the most common types of STDs;
  • know what steps they should take if they suspect they have an STD; and
  • know what they should do if diagnosed with an STD.
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MATERIALS

PRESENTATION GUIDE

This lesson is straightforward. For most presentations, you can simply go over the material found in the fact sheet. This guide simply provides comments on how you might present the material, suggestions for eliciting participant discussion and descriptions of supplementary material and activities you may want to use. Don't feel like you have to follow or use everything in it. You know your audience better than anyone else, you know how much time you have to make your presentation and you have your own unique ways of presenting material you're most comfortable with.

INTRODUCTION

This lesson contains technical material on the causes, symptoms and treatment of STDs. Depending upon your own background and comfort level, you may want to ask an "outside" speaker to present the program. Consider someone from your County Health Department or another medical professional. In you have someone else present the program, you may want to provide her or him a copy of this guide and the leaflet so she or he will know what information you hope will be presented. Begin your presentation by pointing out how serious a threat STDs are to sexually active teens and emphasize the point that the best way participants can protect themselves is to become aware of STDs and how to reduce their risks of contracting one.

Consider using the following exercise to make the point how rapidly STDs can spread among a group of sexually active people. Give each participant a small folded piece of paper and a pencil. Tell participants not to open their papers. Have the name of a STD written on the inside of one person's paper. Ask participants to go around the room and shake hands with three other people. Have them write the first names of those people on the outside of the paper. Remember who received the paper with the STD. After asking a couple of other people if their is anything written inside their paper, call on your "carrier." Begin making an STD map on a chalk board, flip chart or overhead. List the initial "carrier's" name at the top and ask who he or she shook hands with. List their names under the carrier and ask each of them who they shook hands with. Continue to ask who people shook hands with until you have enough names on the map to demonstrate how rapidly a large number of people can become infected. Point out that similar maps are made whenever an STD is reported to the health department or similar agency.

You may want to use the video "Intimacy at Risk" at this point. It is approximately 13 minutes long and provides a good overview of the topic. After showing it, you can discuss the content and reinforce many of the main points by going over the material from the fact sheet.

THE CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF STDS

As you go over this short section, be sure participants understand what STDs are, which ones are caused by bacteria and which ones by viruses and how serious their health consequences are.

CAN STDS BE CURED?

Be sure that participants understand that STDs caused by bacteria can be cured while those caused by viruses cannot. Current treatments can only control the symptoms of viral STDs.

AVOIDING STDS

Begin this section by stressing the point that the only way to be absolutely sure you will not contract an STD is to abstain entirely from sex.

After making that point, go on and discuss each of the ways to reduce the chances of contracting an STD. (If an overhead project is available, use "Reducing the Risk of Contracting an STD" to make a transparency.)

End this section by going over the "safer sex" chart in the "Be Aware of STDs" fact sheet. (Use "Safest/Safer/Risky/Riskiest Sex" to make a transparency.) While some participants may be uncomfortable discussing such practices as oral or anal intercourse, it is absolutely essential that teens be aware of how "risky" various sexual practices are. In the age of AIDS, this information could literally save their lives.

KNOW AND LOOK FOR SYMPTOMS

Go over the symptoms of some of the most common types of STDs.

IF YOU SUSPECT YOU HAVE A STD

Emphasize the point that participants should seek medical attention immediately if they have the slightest suspicion that either they or their partner has an STD. Tell them who they should contact and give them the toll-free STD Hotline number.

Finally, go over the four things someone diagnosed with an STD should do. (Use "If You Are Diagnosed With an STD" to make a transparency.)

INTEGRITY AND STDS

End your presentation by pointing out how teens can be part of the solution to the STD problem. They can share accurate information about STDs with their friends, abstain from sex and avoid activities that place them and their partners at risk. Point out how doing these things are an indication that they are acting responsibly and with sexual integrity.

AUTHOR: Gary L. Hansen, Ph.D., Extension Specialist in Sociology, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Kentucky; and William W. Mallory, Fayette County Extension Agent for 4-H/Youth Development, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Kentucky.

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