Sex Before Marriage

QUESTION: What are the effects of sex before marriage?

ANSWER:

In checking a source on sex before marriage in the adolescent health care section, it was interesting to note the sex before marriage topic followed the teen suicide topic. It is unclear if the editors of THE ILLUSTRATED MANUAL OF NURSING PRACTICES were considering any related concerns between the two subjects. Along with the emotional bonding of sexual relationships, this article will bluntly discuss STDs (Sexually Transmitted Diseases).

AIDS is the foremost STD everyone is quite aware of, which is spread by the HIV (virus). It isn't a pleasant sight to watch someone die of AIDS. Most of the world's AIDS patients die alone. Those who willingly have unsafe sexual practices including sex before marriage, run a greater risk of contacting the disease. Besides the horrible physical symptoms of AIDS, it also causes much pain, degradation, anger, and depression. Take a few moments to count the cost of being sexually active before marriage. Is it worth the few moments of pleasure?

Many STDs are present without symptoms until the disease is far advanced. Treatment becomes difficult in diagnosis and control, because partners must be listed with the medical community to be alerted of the STDs that are being transmitted by sexual partners. A short list of STDs is gonorrhea, syphilis, genital herpes, genital warts, trichomoniasis, and urethritis (usually caused by Chlamydia), which poses serious problems in the system of the kidneys. Lack of control of STDs leads thousands of women to develop secondary infections in the pelvic region, which in turn causes a high percentage rate of infertility. Should a woman become pregnant, she will pass the disease or blindness caused by the disease on to her baby. Young people can help prevent the spread of these debilitating, incurable, and sometimes fatal diseases by saving themselves for their spouse in marriage. These diseases can be transmitted by sexual activities currently believed to be safe, such as oral/anal sex or clitoral stimulation. These diseases have a higher rate of infection than AIDS.

God created the sex act for a man and woman within a marriage. Besides being pleasurable, sex is meant to be a spiritual experience that extends past the marriage bed into the everyday life of a married couple. It is not just setting up house together. The sex act locks the couple together in the purpose that God has set before them. The couple opens up emotionally to each other through the marriage act, which solidifies the continuing unity of the couple in living their lives for God. God intended for sex to help couples work out indifferences between them, along with the need to procreate.

Rarely does a premarital sexual relationship stay together long enough to make it to marriage vows. People engaging in this activity will experience the heart rending emotional upset that comes with breaking up. And when people experience multiple breakups, it numbs them to a marriage commitment of "until death do us part." They have conditioned themselves to run, instead of working out the problems that arises within marriages. Divorce statistics are higher when the couple engaged in premarital sex or lived together before deciding to marry.

The teenage years constitute a normal rise and fall of emotional hormones. Adding sexual activity to their curriculum compounds this process of becoming fully adjusted young adults with properly balanced emotions, physique, and spirituality. Peer pressure to have sex before marriage creates a need to make decisions pertaining to problem solving. Statistic rates are high in being emotionally/physically/sexually abused within their premarital sex relationships. Without a good family support system in place, a teen could easily make unwise problem solving decisions and slump into a state of depression that would cause the teen to consider suicide. If you or your child is struggling with sexual addiction, consult a local Christian counselor or a leader in your church.

When people choose to participate in premarital sexual activity, they will take virus, fungi, bacteria, yeast, spores, or parasitic contamination into the marriage bed once they decide to commit to one partner. Saving oneself for marriage keeps the marriage bed pure from the attack of the germ world.