The act of not allowing oneself to take part in certain or all sorts of sexual activity can be known as sexual abstinence. It could be for medical, societal, legal, psychological, philosophical or religious factors. The majority of people practice abstinence at some time in their life after puberty.
With regards to birth control, abstinence is the only method, which can be 100 per cent effective in preventing unwanted pregnancy in addition to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The argument rages between promoters of both abstinence-only sex education and those, who prefer a detailed sex education policy with information about birth control and safe sex. According to the promoters, abstinence is the only way from the issue of unwanted pregnancies and STDs. They believe that all other methods are certain to fail, so, why take a risk at all. Thus, they state it is proper to instruct the teenagers to abstain from sex until marriage.
In countries that have high rates of adolescent pregnancy and STDs, such as USA, many abstinence-only sex education programmes are active there. They also try to instil moral values saying it’s morally unjustified to have sex before marriage. The main target of such programmes is the youth, particularly teens.
Benefits of Sexual Abstinence
A lot of young individuals as well as adults are looking to develop a new leaf in their life, by solving to abstain from sex. Their reasons vary but even a few people, who’ve experienced sex before, have begun to fix to not have sex. Most of them have some psychological or physical concerns, leading them to the decision.
The level of abstinence a person aspires to have varies. It could mean:
- Abstaining from vaginal intercourse only,
- abstaining from vaginal, oral and anal intercourse, and
- avoiding all sexual behavior including orgasm and even kissing.
These strategies have different benefits, for example:
- Abstaining from vaginal intercourse ensures there’s no unwanted pregnancy. It’s also very effective in preventing STDs. However, there is still good risk of STDs, such as HIV with anal and oral sex.
- Abstaining from all forms of sex including anal and oral is the one method of making certain that you’re completely guarded from the risk of unwanted pregnancy, in addition to STDs.
- Abstaining from all kinds of sex is believed to result in better long-term health. Teen girls reduce their risk of colorectal cancer by abstaining from sexual activity, while boys can steer clear of the risk of STDs that persist even if condoms and other safe sex techniques are used.
Injunctions on sexual acts are a part of each religion and much more or less every single society. Complete sexual abstinence is also practiced for varying reasons.
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