Sex ed class — but straight from the doctor

Over the past 14 years, students at Naches High School and Yakima’s West Valley High School have received comprehensive sexual health education unlike any other school across the region — straight from their local doctor.

Ross Bethel, MD, a family medicine provider from MultiCare’s Selah Family Medicine, visits each school twice a year to speak with students about pregnancy prevention, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and how to reduce their risk for infection. His presentations are part of the required freshman sexual health education class.

Typically, teens visit their primary care provider with a parent or caregiver and may feel too embarrassed to ask questions about sex and sexual health, explains Dr. Bethel. By visiting adolescents where they are, it gives them that opportunity.

“I’m someone who is not their teacher or parent, and as a doctor I can tell real patient stories that make it more real for them,” he says. “And when they ask a question, I have a real answer to give them.”

The students are hungry for this information, Dr. Bethel adds. Some students will submit questions ahead of time and others will ask on the spot, but regardless, they want to know.

In recent years, Dr. Bethel started bringing along local medical students. It adds another layer of comfort for the teens to have someone closer in age to talk to, he says. The medical students bring their own perspectives, personal stories, and sometimes even more updated sexual health information from what they’re learning in school.

The presentation covers different types of STIs — symptoms, how they’re contracted and prevention practices — as well as pregnancy prevention. He makes a special point to cover what condoms can and can’t do and hopefully break down some misconceptions among teens.

“Condoms will of course prevent some things, but some infections are contracted by skin-to-skin contact, so you can’t prevent those with a condom,” Dr. Bethel explains.

As a mixed-gender class, it’s important that all students learn pregnancy prevention methods, the pros and cons of each, and how to access them so everyone can make well-informed decisions in the future, he adds.

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Yakima County typically has some of the highest rates per capita for gonorrhea and chlamydia, Dr. Bethel says.

In 2022, Yakima County had the highest rate of gonorrhea in the state — the next closest was Spokane County, according to the Washington State Department of Health. For chlamydia, Yakima County was the second highest in the state.

When prevention methods and testing/treatment guidelines are followed, though, the community can change the course of startling statistics like this. According to the American Cancer Society, cervical cancer rates declined between 2012 and 2019 for women ages 20 to 24 who were the first to receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.

Learning about sexual health and having these conversations young — even before high school in some cases — is crucial to building a more educated community, Dr. Bethel adds.

“Having done this every year for all the freshman, it’s cool to know that every student in the high school right now has this information,” he says. “It’s worthwhile and worth my time.”