It baffles me how, in this day and age, our genital health is still a taboo subject to talk about. Baffles and disheartens me. We’re all clued up and sold a ‘healthy lifestyle’ package every day via social media and the news etc, but this is focused mainly on physical health. Eat well, work out, look after yourself. Following physical health is mental health, only becoming an ‘okay’ subject to be open and talk about in the more recent years. Behind mental health, sexual health still lingers in the ‘don’t discuss this’ past.
But why?
Sexual health is part and parcel of your healthy lifestyle. It’s a big deal for all of us. Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) have the capability to kill people, and for those unfortunate enough to become HIV positive and then develop AIDS, death is still an option. Thankfully, unlike our ancestors in a less medically advanced world, sexually transmitted infections can more readily be treated and many can be cured. Syphilis was once a killer, until penicillin was discovered as a cure. Even HIV positive no longer holds that death sentence it used to, with medicines helping those infected to live a relatively normal and healthy life.
But with most of these diseases that are transmitted sexually the issue is, often those infected have no idea they have the disease, thus spreading it to more people and, if left long enough untreated, causing themselves potential damage. Chlamydia, for example, often has no symptoms at all and yet can cause infertility in women if not caught and treated during the early stages. Herpes is not curable – it remains in the body forever as a virus, dormant with flare ups across the years (if you’re unlucky) or sometimes no flare ups and no symptoms at all.
I’m not going to list every single STD, their effects and symptoms – that’s for Google and professional doctors to detail. What I am going to do, however, is voice how important it is for people to go get that education on each disease, to get regularly tested and, during sex, to get protected. Condoms are the only thing to date that can prevent STDs being transmitted during sexual intercourse – but even then it’s a hazy territory, especially when it comes to oral sex and foreplay. Condoms also cannot stop herpes, as one example, if the virus is flared up and appears on the genital area beyond where the condom covers.
If you’re thinking, you can always trust someone who says they’re ‘clean’ the chances are, you cannot. I hate to say it, but if this is a new sexual partner or a one night stand, you cannot fully know if they’re STD free. Also, they may not even know themselves! They may never have got tested, have no symptoms and thus be completely unaware of an underlying virus.
This is why getting testing is so important – and regularly, say, once a year. There should be no stigma attached to this process any more – buy going to an STD testing facility you are proving yourself to be responsible, mature and looking after your own health. if we didn’t go to the dentist, we could lose our teeth. If we didn’t go to the doctors, we could become very ill. It is the same process!
If EVERY person got tested as soon as they became sexually active, and kept those tests a regular part of their healthy lifestyle routine, the rate of STDs being spread would be minimized, and the individual’s disease caught and managed effectively at an early stage. Chlamydia can be cleared up by a simple course of antibiotics – but you have to know you have it first via a professional test before you can get help and be virus free!
In the US alone, there are 20 million new STD infections a year, with almost half being in the new generation of millennial:
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there are approximately 20 million new STD infections each year—almost half of them among young people ages 15 to 24. 3 The cost of STDs to the U.S. health care system is estimated to be as much as $16 billion annually” HealthyPeople.gov details.
If you’re stuck on where to go and based in the US, STDcheck.com is a great option. You can select to have only a few STD tests done, or the full 10. It’s private, confidential, FDA approved and you’ll get results within up to two working days. They have 4,500 venues nationwide, and you simply pay / order online, then visit your nearest clinic for the physical test. Pretty easy right? The testing time itself shouldn’t be any longer than 10 minutes – There is no wait time to get tested and no paperwork to complete.
STDcheck advises: “You may be concerned about the best time to test for STDs. If you have had unprotected sexual contact, our doctors recommend testing 3 weeks after initial exposure, and again 3 months after to confirm your initial diagnosis. This is the best way to ensure you test at the right time because different sexually transmitted infections become detectable at different times.”
Should any results come back positive, you can then speak to a doctor and receive the appropriate treatment. I cannot express this enough – everyone, no matter what age, if you’ve been sexually active, you should be tested, even if just for your own peace of mind.
For all my US readers wishing to get themselves checked (good for you!) by clicking through on my link highlighted above, you receive US$15 off your visit.
