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Adolescence And Pregnancy - It Is not As Unheard Of As You Might Think!

All living things reproduce. Reproduction - the process by which organisms make more organisms like themselves - is one of the things that sets living things apart from nonliving matter. But even though the reproductive system is essential to keeping a species alive, unlike other body systems, it's not essential to keeping an individual alive.

In the human reproductive process, two kinds of sex cells, or gametes (pronounced: gah-meetz), are involved. The male gamete, or sperm, and the female gamete, the egg or ovum, meet in the female's reproductive system to create a new individual. Both the male and female reproductive systems are essential for reproduction.

A girl’s body becomes ready to get fertilized when she hits puberty around the age of 12-14, which is also the age one reaches adolescence. Sexual practices though begin during mid-adolescence, the accepted convention (at least in the Indian society) is sex after marriage, and the norm in any society around the world is impregnation and child bearing post marriage.

However, one can’t discount for the occasional “slip-up”, immaturity on part of both the sexual partners, and a defected contraceptive device that together culminate into teenage pregnancy.

Teenage pregnancy is pregnancy in a female under the age of 20. Whether the onset of biological fertility will result in a teenage pregnancy depends on a number of personal and societal factors. Teenage pregnancy rates vary between countries because of differences in levels of sexual activity, marriage among teenagers, general sex education provided and access to affordable contraceptive options. Worldwide, teenage pregnancy rates range from 143 per 1000 in some sub-Saharan African countries to 2.9 per 1000 in South Korea.

There are some facts about Sexual Activity that everyone between the ages 13 to 20 should be aware of:

• Most young teens have not had intercourse: 8 in 10 girls and 7 in 10 boys are sexually inexperienced at age 15.

• The likelihood of teenagers' having intercourse increases steadily with age; however, about 1 in 5 young people do not have intercourse while teenagers.

• Most young people begin having sex in their mid-to-late teens, about 8 years before they marry; more than half of 17-year-olds have had intercourse.

• While 93% of teenage women report that their first intercourse was voluntary, one-quarter of these young women report that it was unwanted.

• The younger women are when they first have intercourse, the more likely they are to have had unwanted or involuntary sex for the first time-7 in 10 of those who had sex before age 13, for example.

• Nearly two-thirds (64%) of sexually active 15-17-year-old women have partners who are within two years of their age; 29% have sexual partners who are 3-5 years older, and 7% have partners who are six or more years older.

• Most sexually active young men have female partners close to their age: 76% of the partners of 19-year-old men are either 17 (33%) or 18 (43%); 13% are 16, and 11% are aged 13-15.

What is important to keep in mind is that as teenagers grow, they make up their minds about intimacy, especially of a physical nature, by themselves, by exposure to different forms of media, or friends. In light of this revelation, it is important to have enough and more information on the right way of going about things, should an individual choose to engage in any form of sexual activity. Talking to someone older and more experienced always helps.