The method of birth control used by a couple is a very personal thing. The choices may be made for religious reasons, for convenience or perhaps even for health reasons. Contraception is used to prevent pregnancy as well as to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. But, for both of these there is one method that is guaranteed to be one hundred percent infallible. This method is abstinence. Many couples may find this a choice not even worth discussing but there are some points about it that are worth thin about. If a couple abstains from premarital sex this does not than just ensure there will be no pregnancy. It also guarantees there will be no passing of diseases that are caught only during the act of sexual intercourse.

Abstinence is taught as the proper way to conduct oneself in some of the more orthodox religions. These religions tell young people that saving oneself for marriage is the right way to conduct oneself. This is because sex is supposed to be for the purpose of procreation, having children, not merely for the enjoyment of two people. Religious teachings do guide many people. But for just as many there is the belief that sexual attraction is part of a relationship.

Now, stepping back from the religious doctrine and thinking more of the way the world is now abstinence may not be a bad thing to consider. If two people truly love each other than avoiding that which could cause them illness or an unwanted pregnancy is not a completely ridiculous idea. Sexually transmitted diseases are a serious thing; gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, herpes, HIV/AIDS, none of these are things that can be simply ignored. But, expecting a couple, be they teenagers or older, to be able to wait months or years before consummating a serious relationship may not be a practical expectation. The act of lovemaking is a serious commitment of body and soul, one that youth do not understand, but one where the needs of the body may prove too much. So many times the first sexual experience between couples is an unplanned one.

Sometimes the very reasons that parents send their children to private schools where only one gender attends is in the hopes that abstinence will be the method used since there will not be people of the opposite sex to tempt them. This does not always work as it is very difficult to keep young people from leaving the school grounds and meeting people of the opposite sex. It still comes down to what does one chooses to do with one's body. With the many available methods of contraception many people feel that abstinence is unnecessary. They do not understand the concerns over sexually transmitted diseases because they have the philosophy that it cannot happen to them. Yet it can.

Abstinence is being taught in schools and by parents. In some areas this has become a large part of the sex educations programs in schools and it is seeing a drop in teenage pregnancies; abstinence works!