Effects of Pre-marital Sex Pre-marital sex is equivalent to fornication. This is giving yourself to another man or woman (cf.

Ezekiel 16:15). This deprives one of real love for ones own partner. Thou shall not play with the harlot (Hosea 3:3). The following are some main effects of premarital sex or sex outside marriage. According to Bisi Ofodile premarital sex leads to suspicion and inability to fully trust the partner even if it was he/she could do it with me before we were married he/she can do it with someone else too.26 Teenage Pregnancy Teenage pregnancy can be a direct effect of premarital sex. It is referred to as an underage pregnancy and affected teenagers stand a high risk. A pregnant teenager develops rapidly physiologically in order to meet the demands of pregnancy as her body is not mature enough to cope with the development of pregnancy. Because of this reason she is faced with the challenge of adjusting to her new body status and that of the pregnancy. Pregnant teenagers (the boys as well) are liable to have the following problems: Their education is terminated or suspended. Low income base; since their education is low automatically their income becomes very low. Small wonder they are unwilling to work. They suffer severe emotional disturbances hence demonstrate inferiority complex, bitterness, and jealousy.
26

Bisi Ofodile, Love, Sex and Gods Plan for You, 28..

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They land themselves in unprepared fatherhood or motherhood. Abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy before the infant can survive outside

the uterus. The age at which a fetus is considered viable has not been completely agreed upon. Many obstetricians use either 21 weeks or 400500 grams (0.91.1 pounds) birth weight as the baseline between abortion and premature delivery, because few infants have survived when they weighed less than 500 grams at birth or when the pregnancy was of less than 21 weeks' duration. Generally speaking, the fetus has almost no chance of living if it weighs less than 1,000 grams (2.2 pounds) and if the pregnancy is of less than 24 weeks' duration. In one effort to resolve the matter, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has defined abortion as the expulsion or extraction of all (complete) or any part (incomplete) of the placenta or membranes, with or without an abortus, before the 20th week (before 134 days) of gestation. Early abortion is an abortion that occurs before the 12th completed week of gestation (84 days); late abortion is an abortion that occurs after the 12th completed week but before the beginning of the 20th week of gestation (85134 days).27 Premarital sex leads to unusual pregnancy, which often leads to abortion. Abortion is murder. It is equivalent to shedding innocent blood; In their skirt is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents (Jeremiah 2:24).

"Pregnancy" Encyclopdia Britannica. Ultimate Reference Suite Chicago: Encyclopdia Britannica, 2010.

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Adolescent girls, in their attempt to cover up the resultant effects of premarital sex (pregnancy), the only resort for them is abortion. Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy before the age foetal maturation. Abortion can be impulsive or induced on medical or other (social or criminal) grounds. Youths indulge in induced abortion to avoid embarrassments and shame of an unwanted pregnancy. Another thing is that premarital sex makes partners disrespect each other. Many men secretly hope to marry virgins. Man values his wife more if she was the first man ever in her life. Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Sexually Transmitted Infections/Diseases are any diseases (such as syphilis, gonorrhea, AIDS, or a genital form of herpes simplex) that are usually or often transmitted from person to person by direct sexual contact. It may also be transmitted from a mother to her child before or at birth or, less frequently, may be passed from person to person in nonsexual contact (such as in kissing, in tainted blood transfusions, or in the use of unsanitized hypodermic syringes). Sexually transmitted diseases usually affect initially the genitals, the reproductive tract, the urinary tract, the oral cavity, the anus, or the rectum but may mature in the body to attack various organs and systems. Tertiary syphilis, or paresis, for example, may affect skin, bones, the central nervous system, the heart, the liver, or other organs. Persons infected by an AIDS virus may remain outwardly healthy for years before the disease takes hold within the immune system (or, often, the disease may never arise at all). 18

The term venereal disease (VD), denoting any disease transmitted by sexual intercourse, lost favour in the late 20th century and was largely supplanted by the more comprehensive term sexually transmitted disease.

Sexually transmitted diseases have a long history. The best known of these diseases, syphilis (q.v.), is caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum. Syphilis was first widely reported by European writers in the 16th century, and some medical historians assume that it was imported into Europe by explorers returning from the New World. Other authorities believe that syphilis is of ancient origin and may at one time have been mistakenly identified as leprosy. At any rate, syphilis first became widely recognized and reported about the year 1500, when a virtual epidemic swept Europe.

Urethritis is the infection and inflammation of the urethra (the passage that transmits urine from the bladder to the exterior of the body). Most cases of urethritis are in fact sexually transmitted. Urethritis that is caused by the gonococcus bacterium (Neisseria gonorrhoeae) is called gonorrhea (q.v.) and is one of the best-known sexually transmitted diseases. Gonorrhea was named by the Greek physician Galen and is thought to have been known to the ancient Chinese and Egyptians.

Syphilis and gonorrhea were long thought to be one disease. Real progress in characterizing them did not occur until the early 20th century, when their different causative microorganisms were identified and reliable diagnostic tests were developed. Effective treatment in the form of sulfa drugs and penicillin was introduced in the 1930s and '40s, and the eradication of such diseases seemed imminent. By the end of the 1950s, 19

however, the frequency index had begun to rise again; among the many reasons cited were the tapering off of active anti-VD campaigns, the causative microorganisms' growing immunity to the antibiotics used in treatment, and a variety of sociological factors influencing sexual behaviour. The widespread acceptance of oral contraceptives and their supplantation of other methods of birth control were possibly linked, for a variety of reasons, to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Not only had the lack of oral contraceptives tended to discourage sexual promiscuity but also the older methods of condom and diaphragm had provided some protection against disease. Only with the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic did a return to the condom and safe sex receive new encouragement.

A disease that became especially widespread beginning in the 1960s and '70s was genital herpes (see herpes simplex). Herpes infections are significant not only in terms of the discomfort they cause but also for the potentially serious illness that might occur in infants born to mothers with genital herpes infections. A variety of treatments have been used for genital herpes, but none have been entirely satisfactory. Jean Garland comments on AIDS that It is a disease that people get or catch no one is born with it. The virus is passed from person to person, including often from mother to baby. An infected person gets or acquires the virus that causes AIDS from someone else who already has the virus ... most diseases that are spread through sex are follow by obvious signs.28 The sexually transmitted disease that caused perhaps the

28

Jean Garland, Aids is Real and and it is in Church (Jos: Honey City Press, 2003), 23.

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greatest alarm in the late 20th century was acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS (q.v.). From the time of its first clear identification in 1981, AIDS spread rapidly, with reported cases rising at a high rate, especially among homosexuals and intravenous drug users in the United States and western Europe and among heterosexuals in tropical Africa. The high mortality rate from AIDS and the absence of a cure or vaccine against the disease had a sobering effect on sexually permissive societies. Promiscuity tended to be more widely discouraged, and the adoption of practices presumed to constitute safe sex (or, rather, safer sex)such as the use of condoms or avoiding anal intercourse tended to be encouraged.

Nearly a score of other sexually transmitted diseases are known. All have reasonably effective drug cures. About half of all cases of urethritis that are not gonorrhea are chlamydia (q.v.), which is caused by an infection with Chlamydia trachomatis. The latter bacterium is also the infecting agent in pelvic inflammatory disease (q.v.) and in still another sexually transmitted disease, lymphogranuloma venereum (q.v.). The cause for the remaining 50 percent of nongonococcal urethral infections is not known; no organism has been definitely related.

Trichomoniasis is an infection of the urogenital tract caused by a protozoan, Trichomonas vaginalis; males usually have no symptoms with this infection, and only a portion of infected females have a vaginal discharge.

Candidiasis (yeast infection) is caused by Candida albicans (sometimes called Monilia albicans), which produces in women a thick, whitish vaginal discharge and 21

causes irritation and itching in the genital area. Males may have irritation of the glans or skin of the penis. Because this yeast is ubiquitous in the environment, these infections are not always sexually acquired.

Warts occurring in the genital areas are caused by certain types of papilloma viruses, and these types of warts can be transmitted to other people by sexual contact. Most often, genital warts are nothing more than a nuisance, but occasionally they can become so numerous or so large as to interfere with urination, bowel movements, or vaginal delivery. There is also mounting evidence that papilloma viral infections of the genital tract are a factor in the development of cancer of the cervix and possibly of the genitals themselves.

Chancroid, granuloma inguinale, and lymphogranuloma venereum are three diseases that have their highest incidence in the tropics. Chancroid, also called soft chancre, is caused by the bacterium Haemophilus ducreyi and resembles in appearance the primary chancre of syphilis. Granuloma inguinale is thought to be caused by a bacterium, Calymmatobacterium (Donovania) granulomatis; the lesion begins as a small sore but may spread to involve large areas, usually in the genital region, in a destructive, ulcerating lesion. Lymphogranuloma venereum is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis and begins with a frequently unnoticed bump on the genitals. Later, lymph glands in the groin enlarge and may proceed to rupture and drain purulent material. Swelling of the genitals may develop much later.

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All of the aforementioned diseases are spread primarily by sexual contact, but there are other diseases that are transmitted sexually only in a minority of cases. Chief among such diseases are cytomegalovirus, a viral infection that is ubiquitous in humans and is spread by various means, including sex, and the hepatitis B virus, which is spread primarily through intravenous injections and blood transfusions but which can also be transmitted sexually.

Finally, a common infestation is pediculosis pubis. The crab louse, Phthirus pubis, infests the hair of the pubic region, where louse eggs, or nits, are attached to the hairs. After about one week the larvae hatch, and in about two weeks they develop into mature crab lice. The lice attach themselves to the base of the hair and feed on the blood of the host. Persons become aware of the infection because they see the lice or the eggs or because intense itching develops after two or three weeks.

Suggested Solutions to Premarital Sex The following are some of the suggested solutions: Teaching: Parents should be encouraged to teach their children at early stage. Christians should be encouraged to cease from immorality; this can be taught to the children so that if they grow up they will not depart from it (Proverbs 5:1), sound biblical teaching through Bible study, seminars, and symposium. The field experience has shown that most parents have little or no time for their childrens academic progress as long as they are

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able to pay their fees. Youths are exceedingly finding it difficult to relate to their parents or guardians on personal matters bothering their minds. The school, therefore, has a vital role to play if this gap is to be filled. Hence, the need for guidance and counselling services in all the post primary institutions in the country. With the introduction of guidance and counselling services, a good deal of youthful exuberance can be effectively checked and curtailed before it escalates. Discipline: the church has a lot to do; proper discipline should also be exercised on the youth, in order not to be wayward. If they do wrong correct them when there is hope he will not die. The church should embark on discipline and put more energy into it. Church educational ministry should focus on the youth by organizing programmes for them. Patrick Dixon said the church needs to not only teach about adultery and fornication from the pulpit. Also, teach the young people the life skills needed to live pure lives. The church should be helping them to deal with the pressures that society today is placing on them.29 Self Denial: Youth should caution their sexual arousal, shy away from any motivation towards sex. They should be careful of kind of peers and novel, movies and books they read and watch. They should discipline themselves with their custom, dressing, and attires they put on. Hunt Morton M. said Theory helps to guide research and organize

29

Patrick Dixon,

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existing practical information. Thus, increased theoretical support can enhance standards of practice and research in premarital counselling. 30

30

Hunt Morton M. Premarital Sex Does St. Paul Permit htmhttp://socratesBlogspot.com.2009

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