Educational Resources
Did you know?
- Texas consistently ranks in the top four states nationally in teen pregnancy rates.
- More than one billion taxpayer dollars is spent on teen child bearing health care in Texas each year.
- Teen mothers are more likely to drop out of High School, remain unmarried and live in poverty.
- Texas does not require sex education programs to teach students about preventing pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases by any means other than abstinence.
- Regional Statistics
- In 2005, Dawson County had the highest teen pregnancy rate in the state of Texas, with 72 percent of teen mothers being of Hispanic origin.
- Potter County in the Texas Panhandle currently ranks second in the state for teen pregnancies.
- As recently as 2009, it was reported that Texas had the highest rate of repeat teen births of any state at 23 percent.
- More than 11% of the population of the San Angelo/Concho Valley ages 0-34 who were tested, tested positive for HPV.
- In 2009 in Lubbock, 6 teenage girls became pregnant on average each week.
- Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)
- We are diagnosing teens with cervical cancer due to HPV.
- HPV, particularly type 16, has now been shown to be sexually transmitted between partners via genital, oral, and anal sex and is conclusively implicated in the increasing incidence of young non-smoking oral cancer patients.
- Other STDs such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, HIV and syphilis continue to increase at alarming rates, with many of our West Texas counties consistently ranking higher than the national average.
Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is a virus that will affect an estimated 75-80% of males and females in their lifetime. Although most HPV infections clear on their own, the virus can lead to cervical, vaginal, and vulvar cancers in females and genital warts in both males and females. Gardasil is the only HPV vaccine that helps protect against 4 types of HPV. In girls and young women ages 9 to 26, Gardasil helps protect against 2 types of HPV that cause about 75% of cervical cancer cases, and 2 more types that cause 90% of genital warts cases. In boys and young men ages 9 to 26, Gardasil helps protect against 90% of genital warts cases.
For more information on HPV and the Gardasil vaccine, please view the following links:
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG):
- Women should have their first cervical cancer screening at age 21.
- Moving this baseline age to 21 is a conservative approach to avoid unnecessary treatment of adolescents which can be very costly and have emotional and future childbearing effects.
- Most women younger than 30 may undergo cervical screening once every two years instead of annually.
- Women over the age of 30 who have had three consecutive negative Pap tests may be screened once every three years.
Please review the following informational handout about what to expect at your first visit with us.