Tag: HIV

I was already a sexually active teenager by the time I began the sexual education class offered by my high school in suburban Colorado. Though the class did not teach an extreme abstinence-only curriculum, it failed to teach me how to better protect myself from sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Rather than also discussing safer-sex practices, we only learned ways to avoid unwanted pregnancies. I was taught to use a condom or “The Pill” for birth control so that I didn’t become another teenage pregnancy statistic, but I didn’t truly learn about how to protect myself from STIs until I went to college. As a result, I experienced years of ignorance, with plenty of opportunities for careless sexual encounters — until I met a Playboy Playmate.