Protecting Your Sexual Health

Get Fit, Get Healthy, Get Tested!
It’s advisable that all sexually active people get tested before becoming intimate with a new partner, regardless of whether or not symptoms are present. So, if you fall into either one of the following categories, it’s time to get tested: 1) You have symptoms of an STI. Common symptoms include burning, itching, discharge from the penis or vagina, sores, abnormal bleeding, or pelvic pain. 2) You have had sex with another person and did not use a condom or dental dam. A person can have an STI for several months or years without knowing he or she is infected. So pick up the phone, call your doctor, or drop by a local Planned Parenthood facility to set up an appointment.

Please Note: As I mentioned earlier, many people, especially women, do not experience any symptoms at all when infected with an STI. Untreated bacterial STIs such as chlamydia or gonorrhea can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease and sterility.

What if you and your partner are ready to “get serious”? In other words, you are ready to be in a committed, exclusive relationship and want to say bye-bye to the barriers? The best thing to do is to use condoms for at least six months and then get a complete workup of STI tests. If the tests are negative, you can say goodbye to the barriers as long as you remain exclusive. If there was a positive STI result, it’s important for you and/or your partner to get treated first and speak with your doctor about potentially infecting your partner with your particular STI.

A Touchy Subject: Masturbation
While safer sex is not 100-percent guaranteed to keep you from contracting a STI, there is something that can: masturbation. It’s one of the safest ways you can engage in getting (or giving) pleasure with minimal risk of contracting an infection or unintended pregnancy. While masturbation may be debated and/or prohibited according to Jewish law, from a medical perspective it’s a relatively safe and enjoyable way to explore your body as well as your partner’s body.

The Risk of Unprotected Sex
So, with all this talk about safer sex, what is it that you are protecting yourself from exactly? Here’s a quick overview.

Bacterial STIs
Common bacterial STIs include chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and vaginal infections. These infections are typically transmitted through fluid-based contact, with the exception of syphilis, which can also be transmitted via contact with infected sores on the skin. Chlamydia and gonorrhea are two of the most common bacterial STIs found in young people today with 3 million new cases each year! STIs caused by bacteria can be treated and cured with antibiotics.

Common Viral STIs
Viral STIs are known as the 4 Hs: HIV, Herpes, Hepatitis, and HPV. Herpes and HPV can be spread through skin-to-skin contact. As I mentioned earlier, one of the challenges with these viruses is that it can be spread even when there are no visible sores on the skin. STIs caused by viruses cannot be cured with medication, but they can be treated with medication, which can reduce and/or alleviate the symptoms of the infection.

Transmission of STIs
STIs are typically transmitted through oral, anal, and vaginal sex. If you have unprotected vaginal or anal intercourse, you are at risk for:

Trichomoniasis
Gonorrhea
Chlamydia
Syphilis
Chancroid
Human papilloma virus (HPV)-also known as genital warts; some strains of the virus cause genital warts; others are associated with cervical cancer
Herpes simplex virus (HSV), which can cause genital herpes
Hepatitis B
Pubic lice
Scabies
HIV, which can lead to AIDS

If you have unprotected oral sex, you are at risk for:
Gonorrhea
Syphilis
Chancroid
Herpes simplex virus
Hepatitis B virus

If you engage in sexual touching, also known as sexual stimulation (some slang terms include making out, hooking up, or fondling) without sexual intercourse, you are at risk for:
Herpes simplex virus
Pubic lice
Scabies

Conclusion
STIs are a reality, and they can happen to you. While there are no documented cases of anyone contracting an STI from a toilet seat, the women I see in the ladies room certainly take every precaution to avoid one! So why not take the same level of precaution when having sex? Do you? I hope so. If not, I hope this post has given you a starting point for practicing safer sex. If we took as much care with our safer-sex practices as we do with our hands-free acrobatics in the restroom, maybe the statistics of sexually transmitted infections would be less staggering. Let’s make it happen!