Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Testing And Prevention

It's April! Spring is in the air, and the timing is perfect for STD Awareness Month. STD Awareness Month is there to inform as many people as possible about sexually transmitted diseases, the effect they can have on lives, and about their prevention.

What should that mean for you personally? STD Awareness Month is unique among awareness events, because sex is something that affects nearly everyone. So, here is a great chance to pull your head out of the sand and consider the possibility that you may be vulnerable to STDs yourself, and that you may even have one or more sexually transmitted diseases right now.

STDs: Facts And Statistics

Since you're here on SteadyHealth, you already have a few things going for you. You are sure to know at least a little bit about sexually transmitted diseases, and you also quite obviously care about your own health. Could you still have an STD? Maybe. Even people who are relatively knowledgeable can underestimate their risk of having an STD. You may force yourself into denial, even if you are quite aware that many sexually transmitted diseases are asymptomatic. STDs are scary, after all, and “thinking yourself out of one” can be very appealing.

Don't think you are immune to sexually transmitted diseases, because you are not. Men and women of all ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, and ethnic groups get STDs. Sexually transmitted diseases infect married people and people in committed relationships as well as singles. Straight and gay people get them. Lots of people catch STDs, in short — there are 20 million new STD cases in the United States each year.

Here is what else you should know about sexually transmitted diseases:

• In the US, 50 percent of new sexually transmitted infections occur in young people between 15 and 24.

• The 50+ crowd is not exempt from STDs — in the UK, cases of sexually transmitted diseases in this age group doubled over the last 10 years.

• The number of new infections is spread among men and women around equally.

• Sexually transmitted diseases cost the US around $16 billion per year.

• Syphilis is on the rise again, and 63 percent of patients are gay or bisexual men.

• Chlamydia and gonorrhea are most common among young people under 25.

• Undiagnosed sexually transmitted diseases silently make 24,000 US women a year infertile.

• A whopping 110 million sexually transmitted diseases are currently being managed in the US. Some of these are life-long, chronic diseases, while others can be cured.

Which STDs are most common?

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows which sexually transmitted diseases cause most new infections in the United States every year. This is the latest data, from 2008:

1. HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) — 14,100,000 new cases

2. Chlamydia — 2,860,000 new cases

3. Trichomoniasis — 1,090,000 new cases

4. Gonorrhea — 820,000 new cases

5. HSV-2 (Herpes Simplex type 2) — 776,000 new cases

6. Syphilis — 55,400 new cases

7. HIV — 41,400 new cases

8. Hepatitis B — 19,000 new cases

Preventing Sexually Transmitted Diseases

If you want to take every possible step to prevent yourself from being infected by sexually transmitted diseases, your safest best is complete abstinence. Even that will not protect you 100 percent, since STDs like Hepatitis B and HIV can be transmitted through blood too. Bogey tattoo parlors, third-world country blood transfusions, and IV drug use will will bring you right back into the danger zone.

In practice, you are probably not going to abstain. Responsible sexual behavior is different for every person.

If you are in a new, monogamous relationship, use condoms to start off with. Once you both get tested for sexually transmitted diseases, you can quit using them. Once you stop using condoms, make sure you find another birth control method that works for you, unless you are trying to get pregnant.

If you are married or in a long-term committed relationship, make sure you get tested for sexually transmitted diseases every so often (annually, for example). The thought that your partner could cheat on you may be unbearable, but it does happen! Make STD testing a part of your routine medical care.

Are you a sexually active single? People of any sexual orientation who have sex with multiple partners should always use condoms. Condoms offer the best protection against infection, but they are hardly foolproof. You know that condoms can break, but were you also aware that some STDs can be passed on even while you are using condoms? Trichomoniasis and genital warts are examples of diseases condoms don't necessarily protect you from.

Are you poly? That's a tricky situation. Use your own judgment to determine whether the advice for long-term monogamous couples applies to you, or the advice for sexually active singles. If one of your partners is also in a relationship with someone else, you want to be very careful.

Finally, if you are a teenager, you have some serious thinking to do. You've made it this far through and have seen that a huge percentage of new STD cases strike your exact age group. Don't believe that you're safe from STDs because your boyfriend or girlfriend says they're a virgin, or just because you are still young. Use condoms if you have sex, and use an additional form of birth control to prevent pregnancy. If you are at all doubting whether you should be having sex at all at this point, stop. You may not be too young to have sex, but you're definitely too young to spend the rest of your life with an incurable sexually transmitted disease like HIV, or even HPV.

Don't Play With Your Health — Get Tested!

Hi, reader! Yes, you there. Have you been tested for sexually transmitted diseases recently? If the answer is no, I suggest that you grab the opportunity to make an appointment with your family doctor or family planning clinic now. Almost every individual should get tested for STDs occasionally. You can discuss the intervals with your healthcare provider.

You should get tested even when you think you can't possibly have a sexually transmitted disease, for two reasons. The first is that some STDs, including chlamydia, HPV, and HIV, can be “silent” (asymptomatic) for a long time. You can still have an STD if you don't have any symptoms — you or your partner may have picked it up during a previous relationship.

If you and your partner are found to have a sexually transmitted disease, that doesn't necessarily mean one of you cheated. But that is a possible scenario too, and it would make reason number two why every person should be tested for STDs regularly.

Most sexually transmittable diseases are treated easily. All patients benefit from early diagnosis, both because treatment or management may be more successful, and because you want to prevent passing your STD on to other people. Having a sexually transmitted disease may be scary, but having one without being aware of it is far most frightening in the long run.