Sexual health is important, but being fully educated about sexual health is important too. I watch a YouTuber named Hannah Witton who speaks openly about sexual health and educates her viewers immensely on the subject. Personally, I think she is someone who everyone can learn a lot from as she doesn't sugarcoat anything and tells you exactly what you need to know, as well as reassuring you that what you're experiencing is normal.
Hannah recently made a video on what she wish she was taught about sexual health, which viewers contributed towards and offered their suggestions to the things they wish someone had told them during sexual education. You can watch that video HERE.

This video inspired me to write this post and express how I do not think young people today are taught about their sexual health in enough detail, at school especially. This isn't a topic I have touched on before, for some reason, but it is nothing to be ashamed of and I don't believe sexual health should still be such a taboo subject. It is, after all, a part of life and how are we meant to learn about it if we don't talk about it? Although, if you do feel uncomfortable with the topic, feel free to click off. :)

High school is the place you should be taught in the most detail about sexual health, and just life in general, right? In primary school you're taught the basics, girls have periods and...well, I don't know what the boys were taught as we were separated into two rooms, but anyway, you're taught the simple stuff. Flash forward to high school and you begin to lean more about the "birds and the bees," as they call it.

I wanted to share with you my sexual education experience and why I don't think youngsters today are taught enough about the subject, and how we are, almost, left to just figure it out as we go along.
I went to a Catholic high school. I wasn't Catholic myself, as many of the students there weren't, although some were and the majority of the teachers were. I am not bashing my school,  as it has a good reputation and the teaching was always of a good standard, however, when it comes to sexual education, I left high school feeling, pretty much, as bewildered about the whole thing, as I did when I first started.
I feel as though I really missed out on learning a lot of the essential things for life in terms of sex. I am not sure if this has any correlation with the fact that I attended a Catholic school, although, I do think it played a part and, either way, I believe high schools need to teach their students more about these things which are inevitable.
For example, in my science lessons, we learnt the basics, and that was pretty much it. I do not recall every learning anything about contraception, sex for LGBTQ+ members, I wasn't taught in detail about sexually transmitted diseases, we weren't taught about the actual process of having sex, complications people may have, even the things which are normal in the process of growing up and becoming more sexually active we weren't educated on. In science lessons, we were taught exactly that, the science of things. Our teachers told us about how a man and woman have sex and a baby is made, we then proceeded to learn about the growth of the fetus. We learnt all about the insides of our body, our organs, in detail about the lungs, our DNA, cloning, and some other things which seemed a lifetime ago, yet never actually had a detailed sex education.
I don't know if any of you can relate to this, however, there are a lot of things I am still very confused about, both when it comes to sex and my own body. Things happen and I'm like "Why is this happening?" "Is it normal?" "Does this happen to other people?" Then, of course, there are other questions I have which I don't feel as though I can just ask people outright as they would sound stupid and I feel other people already know everything there is to know, although, no one knows it all.

I think sex education is very vague these days. Despite the fact that it will be more advanced than it was years ago, I think teachers tend to sugarcoat things as they don't want to make things awkward, but, no matter how awkward it gets, personally, I'd rather have a thourough sexual education experience so I know exactly what I'm doing when I'm older. I would rather have to sit in a class full of giggling teenagers hiding behind their hands as teachers put diagrams on the board, rather than them beating around the bush and just telling us how a baby is made, as it only leaves us confused. The world has changed so much since sex education began, for example, as mentioned, people are more open to accepting LGBTQ+ sex. And I am sure there will be members of each high school class who are part of the LGBTQ+ community and want to know about what sex is like for them, yet they won't get to find out.
Instead, we're very much left to figure it out ourselves. Now don't get me wrong, schools do teach us some things about how our bodies will change as we age and about sex, even if we don't realise it. However, don't you agree that we learn more through either family members, friends or the internet, than through school? I know that I would certainly not be as sexually educated as I am if it wasn't for social media. I'm guessing a lot of you probably learn things through fanfictions as well, which I don't see anything wrong with. I am really thankful that YouTubers like Hannah exist and aren't afraid to talk about these subjects as they make things a whole lot easier for confused youngsters like myself and it's nice to know there is someone there to clear things up.

I would love to know your thoughts on this subject! Do you think your school taught you enough about sex education? Or do you think you've learnt more by yourself? Like most things in life, we just have to figure it out as we go along, but I do reckon we should leave school with more knowledge about sexual health than we do. It does still seem to be such a taboo subject but it's a part of life. We all exist because of it. It's important to talk about these issues and ask the questions that are clouding up your brain. Google things you aren't sure of, use the terminolgy which might make you cringe slightly, but if we don't talk about sex and do our research, it leaves us all in a very awkward situaion if we come to have it or start having problems when we're older.
So, tell me what you reckon schools could do to educate their students more on their sexual health. Personally, the big things for me are LGBTQ+ sex, STIs, contraception, complications and just, generally, the processes of having sex and the different kinds. It is as if teachers don't want to frighten their students and think it would be awkward for them to stand at the front of the class and talk about having sex, but would they rather their students grow up knowing nothing and feeling worried when a normal change occurs in their body yet they think it's only happening to them? I also don't agree with religious schools inflicting their beliefs about sex onto pupils. It's fine to have them, however, it's vital to remember 1) not everyone in that school will follow that religion and 2) times have changed! Even if a student does follow that religion, chances are, they will be a lot more liberal and accepting of things which are perhaps condemned. There should be more to sexual education than periods and making babies.