Sex. Something most people will do in their lifetime whether male, female, or anyone in between.
There are many resources available to college students, many that you may not even know that are available to you.
There is federal or state funding that goes into many resources including: Title X, STD prevention, testing, and treatment, and other family planning resources such as Planned Parenthood.
Family planning is very important for many Americans. Family planning allows people to attain their desired number of children and determine the spacing of pregnancies.
It is achieved through the use of contraceptives and the treatment of infertility. Additionally, the use of family planning can mitigate the risk of HIV and STI spread. If you do not want a child at a certain point in time it is recommended that contraceptives be used. Most college students in terms of life stages, would like to prevent pregnancy. Many tools for preventing pregnancy are accessible to college students because of public health efforts.
The Affordable Care Act, among many changes that it made to the healthcare system and public health, has one change that may be more important to college students specifically since most of us can now be on our parents insurance until 24. Birth control was made more accessible to women because the ACA required insurance to cover at least one form of each type of birth control completely. That means when someone goes to pick up their birth control, there is a $0 copay.
Additionally there are public health programs that aim to decrease rates of sexually transmitted infections (STI). HIV/AIDs, a disease that is transmitted sexually, is considered by WHO to be a global epidemic. The Ohio HIV/STI Hotline, also known as OHIV, is an organization that is trying to decrease the rate of STI’s in Ohio. One of the things that they do to combat this issue is that they ship free condoms to anyone in Ohio (click this link for more information: https://ohiv.org/free-condoms/). It is important to remember that to prevent the spread of STI’s; a condom can be used before vaginal, oral, or anal sex. Of course, condoms do more than prevent STI, they can also be used to prevent pregnancy. Optimally used, condoms can prevent up to 98% of pregnancies, however in typical use, 85%.
Lastly, Planned Parenthood has several locations in Ohio. Many people focus on that Planned Parenthood does abortions. But that’s not all they do, in terms of sexual health they also prescribe birth control, have access to emergency contraceptive (morning after pill), HIV services, LGBT services, STI testing and treatment, and men and women’s health service. While Planned Parenthood is no longer covered under Title X, they still provide health services to low income Americans, and also those that are uninsured.
There are many options for college students for their Sexual Health needs. There are many cheaper, if not free options for students to prevent pregnancy, and prevent and treat HIV/STIs.