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Maternal and Family Health Services (MFHS) announces the launch of SafeTeens Answers!, Pennsylvania’s first teen health textline. The service allows both young men and women to ask questions of trained reproductive health educators and receive timely responses, all over text message, all for free.
To ask a question, users first text the keyword “SAFE” to 57890, the SafeTeens Answers! five-digit short-code. Within seconds, users receive a welcome message from SafeTeens Answers! and may begin texting questions.
The program’s health educators are trained on a wide array of young men’s health topics, including condoms, STDs, and the “am-I-normal?” anatomy questions.
SafeTeens Answers! is built on the success of MFHS’s thirteen-year-old teen health website, SafeTeens.org. Both the textline and website also provide a connection to confidential HIV and STD testing and treatment at MFHS centers and partner sites.
While the Pennsylvania Department of Health recommends that many young people get tested for sexually transmitted diseases, many don’t until they present symptoms. But STDs don’t always cause symptoms, which is why reliable health information is so vital.
More information on the SafeTeens Answers! Textline can be found at http://www.safeteens.org/answers.