Teach About Pleasure in Sex Ed to Improve Condom Use
We all remember sex ed. If you’re based in America, it was probably a lot of doom and gloom and a lot of misinformation. But a new study suggests we should be focusing more on the pleasurable parts of sex along with the biological implications.
By analyzing studies on the outcome of various sexual health programs that either do or do not provide an emphasis on sexual pleasure, the researchers found that those programs that do focus on pleasure “significantly improved” participants’ use of condoms.
The majority of programs the researchers analyzed discussed sexual pleasure in the context of behavioral skills, such as “making condom use fun or sexy” and “using lubrication to enhance sexual pleasure,” researchers said. Doing so, they found, did result in behavioral changes.
This makes sense to us! Instead of letting teenagers among themselves talk about how terrible condoms feel, teach them ways to make them feel better, and we could see a drop in unplanned pregnancies and STIs!