College students often feel pressured to be more physically intimate to fit in. Thomas Barwick/Digital Vision/Getty Images

I know that casual sex and the hookup culture are often considered the norm in college, and many students don’t consider negative consequences beyond pregnancy.

Unfortunately, nearly half (48.2%) of the 2.4 million reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis (all stages) in the United States in the most recent year surveyed were among adolescents and young adults ages 15 to 24 years, according to the Sexually Transmitted Infections Surveillance, 2023 from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What I’ve seen in my clinical experience is that teens and young adults often overlook the need for protection against infections, especially when th

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