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Health Services - Family Planning Program
Relationships Relationships can be difficult and require a good understanding of each other and what each other has
in mind for the future. During the teen years especially, it may be hard to determine if there is love or lust. Two
people can be in love without having sex, and two people can have sex without being in love. Relationships seem to be the
happiest when both of these things are involved. Sometimes people think they are in love and decide to have sex. Sometimes
this leads to "long-lasting love" but most of the time, it doesn’t. A few things to think about may be:
How you answer these questions may determine the level of your relationship. Healthy relationships include fairness,
trust, good communication, and respect. Looking at these aspects, along with others, can help you decide how healthy your
relationship is. On the list of "Cool Sexual Health Websites", there are some links to
sites that have relationship tests that you can do on-line. For many teenagers, relationships can seem to get very
serious very quickly. It may seem like they will last forever, but very rarely do. In some cases, one partner may feel
forced to stay with the other even if they know it’s not what they want. This is why communication with each other is
so important. If your feelings change, let your partner know. It may be as simple has talking about what is bothering you,
but you won’t know unless you talk about it.
One of the most important things to be open about is sexual activity. Not having sex at all (abstinence) is the
best way to prevent a pregnancy that you may not be ready for. Some couples choose to wait to have sex until they are
married, while others use birth control methods, such as condoms, the pill, etc. These methods, along with fact sheets of
the methods we provide can be found on our website as well.
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