Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and Your Sexual Health

Think you might have an STD?

The Laurel Pregnancy Center can provide you a referral for STD testing. Call us at 301.776.9996 for more information.

Sexuality is part of our everyday life. What are you doing to educate yourself?

STDs

The U.S. has the highest STD rates of any country in the industrialized world. - Kaiser Family Foundation, December, 1998.

Of the more than 15 million new STD infections each year:

• two-thirds will occur in people under 25 years of age
• one in four will occur in teenagers

Every year approximately 10 billion dollars is spent on major STDs other than AIDS and their complications. This cost is shared by all Americans.

Today there are more than 30 STDs and over 200 strains of human papilloma virus (HPV).

A British study found that HPV infects 46% of teenage girls after their first sexual intercourse. HPV is directly linked to 99.7% of all cervical cancers. Nearly as many women die of cervical cancer each year as die of AIDS.

Herpes increased 500% in the past 20 years among Caucasian American teens.

Nearly 50% of African-American teens have genital herpes.

Nearly 1 in 10 teen girls has chlamydia; nearly half of all cases are girls 15-19 years old.

Over 80% of teens with STDs show no symptoms and therefore never get medical attention, leaving them exposed to the risk of serious complications years later.

In a national Kaiser Family Foundation survey, one out of every five sexually active teens reported that oral sex is safe sex. However, HIV, herpes, HPV, chancroid, intestinal parasites, gonorrhea, syphilis and hepatitis A & B can all be contracted through oral sex.

The risks of STDs vary with each disease, but risks include: infertility (you are unable to get pregnant and have children); pelvic inflammatory disease; risks to unborn children; cervical cancer; and in the case of HIV, death.

For more detailed information about STDs, visit www.medinstitute.org and click on "STD Overview."

Condoms

Condoms do not eliminate the risk of contracting an STD, and they do little to prevent many viral infections spread by skin-to-skin contact, especially HPV and herpes. In fact, the AIDS virus is so small (0.1 mm) it can potentially penetrate any standard condom.

Slippage and breakage of condoms is 26 percent.

Sexual Activity

New studies show that clinical depression in adolescent boys and girls is related to sexual activity and drinking.

RESOURCES:

• US Centers for Disease Control "Epidemic: Tracking the Hidden Epidemics: Trends in STDs in the United States 2000".
• US Centers for Disease Control "CDC Issues National Report Card on STDs: Gonorrhea and Syphilis Down, but Not Beaten: Chlamydia Continues to Spread Widely" 1998.
• National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, NIH, USHHS, "An Introduction to Sexually Transmitted Diseases" July 1999.
• NIAID & National Institutes of Health, "Workshop Summary: Scientific Evidence on Condom Effectiveness for Sexually Transmitted Disease STD) Prevention, 2001.
• The Medical Institute on Sexual Health, "Oral Sex and STDs" Fall 2003.
• UPMC News Bureau: "Magee-Womens Research Institute Study Finds Undiagnosed Sexually Transmitted Disease Infection Rate of Nearly 1 in 5 Among Adolescent Females" June 7, 2001.
• The Medical Institute on Sexual Health, General Information, studies, statistics, more.
• US Centers for Disease Control, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Information.
• Gregory B. Davis and L.W. Shroeder, "Influence of Contact Angles on the Leakage of Latex Condoms," Journal of Testing and Evaluation, 9/90, pp. 356-57.
• Robert Knight, "Fact Sheet on Condom Effectiveness," The Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC, 11/11/91.