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Sexual teen health comes into a parents mind and the teenagers mind around the age of thirteen years old. Teen girls start menstruation and start to get their breasts. As a parent you should always be ready to answer any questions they may have and be ready to sit down and talk to them about all of these changes. Taking care of teen health at this age is very important. As your teen grows and develops they may have questions about their changing bodies.
When your teen first get their period there may be a lot of questions that arise and you are the one who will be answering them if they haven't already taken the teen health class in school. Your teen may ask about all the PMS, cramps, bloating, backaches, fatigue, headaches and so much more that go along with having your period and growing up.
Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) includes a lot of different symptoms, physical as well as emotional. PMS is usually the worst about seven days before your period and can include pimples appearing on your face, headaches, stomach cramps, sore breasts, diarrhea, irritability, backaches, fatigue, depression, nausea, food cravings, stress, difficulty concentrating, constipation, and bloating. This doesn't harm teen health, but can make your teen feel like they are sick. Avoiding caffeine, salty foods and a lot of carbohydrates during your period can help ease all of these symptoms.
Sexual teen health is sometimes compromised if your teen is becoming sexually active. After a teen has started their periods and began growing breasts, hormones are raging through their bodies and sex may cross their minds. Teen health is very important to worry about when they are at this age. You should consider taking your teen in the gynecologist for their first pelvic and breast exam. And if you have talked to them about sex you could also put them on birth control, but be sure to let them know that this does not mean that you are allowing them to engage in sexual activity. Birth control pills can also help relieve the pains of PMS by balancing out the hormones.
Since your teen is developing this is the time that you or their doctor should explain how to give a self breast exam. They should still go in for their annual check-up along with doing the self exam at home every month. Let them know that a teen can get breast cancer just as any other woman can get breast cancer. Sometimes there a are teen health centers in your area that can explain more about breast cancer and a teens changing body.
If your teen is sexually active, this may become a big problem affecting teen health. Sexually transmitted diseases (STD's) are becoming more and more common with teens under the age of 19. These are a serious health problem for your teen. If an STD goes untreated and unnoticed, it can be devastating for the teen as well as other teens he or she may have had sexual contact with. Some STD's can cause permanent damage, such as infertility, or even death. HIV/AIDS is rapidly growing throughout the United States of America and in on the rise in teens.
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