rash, muscle aches, seisures, and headaches.
Toxic shock is very rare, and you can avoid it easily if you follow these tips:
• Always wash your hands before inserting a tampon or putting your finger into your vagina.
• Keep your fingernails trimmed short and filed smooth.
• Use tampons during the day and use a pad at night.
• Don’t use “superabsorbent” tampons. Use “slender” or “regular” ones unless you have very heavy flow.
• Change your tampons at least every six hours.
• Switch to pads when your flow lightens.
Fertilization and Pregnancy
----
If a sperm that has traveled up into the uterus fertilizes the mature egg, and the egg attaches itself to the uterine wall, the menstrual cycle stops because you are pregnant.
If you stop menstruating and you have had sexual intercourse, you should take a pregnancy test as soon as possible. Even if you have never had a period, if you have had penile-vaginal intercourse you could get pregnant anyway. An egg may have been released and you don’t know it yet. This is onereason why you must not engage in unprotected sexual intercourse even if you haven’t yet menstruated.
For more information on protection, see Chapter 13 .
Perimenopause
----
All through adulthood, your hormones will continue to regulate your periods until you reach your forties. At this time the levels of your sex hormones will begin to drop and your periods may become irregular. This stage is called perimenopause. 6
Menopause
----
Roughly about the time you’re in your early fifties, your periods will stop for good. This is because the level of estrogen in older women drops and they no longer make mature eggs. This time in life is called menopause. 7
----
1 menstruation (men-stroo- a -tion)
2 ovulation (ov-yuh- ley -shun)
3 dysmenorrhea (dis-men-uh- ree -uh)
4 menorrhagia (men-uh- rey -jee-uh)
5 amenorrhea (ey-men-uh- ree -uh)
6 perimenopause (peri- men -uh-pawz)
7 menopause ( men -uh-pawz)
III
Sexuality
10.
Sexuality, Abstinence, and Sexual Intercourse
Sexuality
----
By nature, we are all sexual beings, from the time we are born to the time we die. This is one of the most beautiful parts of being human. During adolescence, you are learning to bring all aspects of yourself into relationship—your values, thoughts, emotions, and, yes, your sexuality. This is part of your identity. Understanding and becoming comfortable with your sexuality is an ongoing, lifelong process, as important as developing your mind and character. As you mature, this is what lets you join with another person to give and receive pleasure as well as to have babies.
Sexuality isn’t just about having sex, as in sexual intercourse.Sexuality is also about thoughts, fantasies, feelings—thinking sexy thoughts, feeling turned on, when we feel excited to see a person who appeals to us. It’s those sexy feelings that make us want to kiss and hug and dance close.
Sexuality in its totality (kissing, fondling, and so forth), and sexual intercourse specifically, is too important, too potentially beautiful (and too potentially harmful—both physically and emotionally), to enter into without being thoughtful.
There are many joys, but also complications, that can arise when you have sexual intercourse. There are the risks of getting pregnant or getting someone pregnant or getting a sexually transmitted infection (STI) that could affect you for the rest of your life. Then there are the emotional risks of having your heart broken if you’ve given yourself to someone you don’t really know, or trust, or aren’t with for very long. While some high school relationships last a long time—maybe a lifetime—more often they are short-lived.
I am stunned by how many girls, when asked how they came to have their first intercourse, reply, “I don’t know—it just happened”! You don’t want your first time to “just happen,” do you? Don’t you want to be able
Toxic shock is very rare, and you can avoid it easily if you follow these tips:
• Always wash your hands before inserting a tampon or putting your finger into your vagina.
• Keep your fingernails trimmed short and filed smooth.
• Use tampons during the day and use a pad at night.
• Don’t use “superabsorbent” tampons. Use “slender” or “regular” ones unless you have very heavy flow.
• Change your tampons at least every six hours.
• Switch to pads when your flow lightens.
Fertilization and Pregnancy
----
If a sperm that has traveled up into the uterus fertilizes the mature egg, and the egg attaches itself to the uterine wall, the menstrual cycle stops because you are pregnant.
If you stop menstruating and you have had sexual intercourse, you should take a pregnancy test as soon as possible. Even if you have never had a period, if you have had penile-vaginal intercourse you could get pregnant anyway. An egg may have been released and you don’t know it yet. This is onereason why you must not engage in unprotected sexual intercourse even if you haven’t yet menstruated.
For more information on protection, see Chapter 13 .
Perimenopause
----
All through adulthood, your hormones will continue to regulate your periods until you reach your forties. At this time the levels of your sex hormones will begin to drop and your periods may become irregular. This stage is called perimenopause. 6
Menopause
----
Roughly about the time you’re in your early fifties, your periods will stop for good. This is because the level of estrogen in older women drops and they no longer make mature eggs. This time in life is called menopause. 7
----
1 menstruation (men-stroo- a -tion)
2 ovulation (ov-yuh- ley -shun)
3 dysmenorrhea (dis-men-uh- ree -uh)
4 menorrhagia (men-uh- rey -jee-uh)
5 amenorrhea (ey-men-uh- ree -uh)
6 perimenopause (peri- men -uh-pawz)
7 menopause ( men -uh-pawz)
III
Sexuality
10.
Sexuality, Abstinence, and Sexual Intercourse
Sexuality
----
By nature, we are all sexual beings, from the time we are born to the time we die. This is one of the most beautiful parts of being human. During adolescence, you are learning to bring all aspects of yourself into relationship—your values, thoughts, emotions, and, yes, your sexuality. This is part of your identity. Understanding and becoming comfortable with your sexuality is an ongoing, lifelong process, as important as developing your mind and character. As you mature, this is what lets you join with another person to give and receive pleasure as well as to have babies.
Sexuality isn’t just about having sex, as in sexual intercourse.Sexuality is also about thoughts, fantasies, feelings—thinking sexy thoughts, feeling turned on, when we feel excited to see a person who appeals to us. It’s those sexy feelings that make us want to kiss and hug and dance close.
Sexuality in its totality (kissing, fondling, and so forth), and sexual intercourse specifically, is too important, too potentially beautiful (and too potentially harmful—both physically and emotionally), to enter into without being thoughtful.
There are many joys, but also complications, that can arise when you have sexual intercourse. There are the risks of getting pregnant or getting someone pregnant or getting a sexually transmitted infection (STI) that could affect you for the rest of your life. Then there are the emotional risks of having your heart broken if you’ve given yourself to someone you don’t really know, or trust, or aren’t with for very long. While some high school relationships last a long time—maybe a lifetime—more often they are short-lived.
I am stunned by how many girls, when asked how they came to have their first intercourse, reply, “I don’t know—it just happened”! You don’t want your first time to “just happen,” do you? Don’t you want to be able
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