LOUISVILLE, Ky. — "Let's talk about sex baby!"
Salt-N-Pepa aren't the only ones ready to talk about intimacy. According to new CDC data, condom usage is down for everyone, but researchers say the trend is especially stark among teens and young adults.
According to the CDC Youth Risk Behavior Survey, students' sexual activity decreased, but so did their protective sexual behaviors, like condom use and being regularly tested for diseases like HIV and others.
The contributing factors are medical advancements like long-term birth control options and drugs that prevent sexually transmitted infections, a fading fear of contracting HIV and widely varying degrees of sex education in high schools.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is following some of these national trends, but not all.
According to CDC data, Kentucky frequently didn't crack the top 20 among other states for STI's like chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in 2022.
As for teen birth rates, Kentucky had 21.8 births per 1,000 girls ages 15-19 in 2022.
The data suggests Kentucky teens are practicing some safe sex behaviors.
Around 24% of high school students in Kentucky reported they are sexually active, according to CDC survey data from 2023. This is up from 22% in 2021.
In the same survey, 46.6% of Kentucky high school students reported using condoms, up slightly from 46.4% in 2021.
14.3% said they didn't use any form of birth control with an opposite sex partner, which is down from 14.8 in 2021.
Around 40.7% of students said they are using some form of birth control other than condoms, like birth control pills or an IUD. This number is up from 39.8% in 2021.
But this data also suggested students are not getting regularly tested for sexually transmitted diseases.
Only 7% of students said they were tested for an STI besides HIV, and the survey had no data on the amount of students who have ever been tested for HIV. There was no data for 2021.
Students in the Commonwealth also may have disparities in what they are learning about sex in school.
There are no federal standards for sex education, which means states can make their own rules about what is taught and what isn't.
The Sexual Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), a progressive sex education organization, gives states a letter grade for their sexual education curriculum policy and provides details on each state's requirements.
They gave Kentucky an F overall.
"While some sex education is currently required by proxy in Kentucky through their health education standards, it is not required to be medically accurate or include instruction on consent," the website said.
Kentucky schools are required to teach sex education as a part of their health education.
The rules are:
- Curriculum must include instruction on abstinence as the “desirable goal” for school-age youth.
- Curriculum must follow the Kentucky Academic Standards according to law.
- Curriculum is not required to include instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity.
- Curriculum is not required to include instruction on consent.
- Kentucky now requires written parental consent prior to students receiving sex education in sixth grade and up.
- Kentucky has no regulation regarding medically accurate sex education instruction.
In 2023, Senate Bill 150 was enacted into law, prohibiting sex education in grades K–5. It also restricts instruction on gender identity, expression, or sexual orientation in public schools.
Some educators may find the rules around what they can teach to be vague so sex education my vary across the state and across school districts.
For more information about sexual education for teens and young adults you can visit the Healthy Teen Network and The American Academy of Pediatrics. The Louisville YMCA has a program called Loves Notes, a national, evidence based program about healthy relationships.
