Coming to terms with Sexually Transmitted Disease: page 1
The
microbes that cause sexually transmitted diseases are equal
opportunity bugs. They don't care if you are white or black, rich or
poor, educated or illiterate, happy or sad. If you're a warm body,
you'll do. STD germs settle in an estimated 15 million Americans each
year. Worldwide, they find 250 million new hosts a year.
These numbers reflect men and women, young and
old. STD germs love everybody who loves, because they are spread by
intimate body contact. The word "venereal," as in venereal disease,
comes from the name of the Romans goddess of love, Venus.
Germs can, however, be biologically sexist in
the damage they do. Women suffer more adverse consequences from STDs
than do men because, generally, it is easier for an STD to be
transferred from a man to a woman. More harm can be done to a woman's
reproductive organs if an infection is left untreated -- and, women's
infections do, in fact, go untreated more often, since women are less
likely to show symptoms of an STD. The absence of symptoms in the
presence of an infection is known medically as being
"asymptomatic."
Two-thirds of all STDs occur in people under
the age of 25. This isn't necessarily because this age group is more
vulnerable to STDs. It's simply that these people are more likely to
expose themselves to the number one risk factor for STDs: having sex
with multiple partners without adequate protection from germs.
Bacteria,
Viruses, and Bugs
Over a lifetime, the body can host many
different kinds of germs including those that cause sexually
transmitted diseases. There are three types of STDs -- bacterial,
viral, and bugs.
Bacterial STDs are transient which means they
will respond to medication and can be kicked out of your system.
However, if they remain untreated they can cause very serious damage.
Bacterial STDs include gonorrhea, a bacteria
which can cause infertility, heart disease, blindness, damage to the
urinary tract, arthritis, and damage to an unborn child; chlamydia,
which has been implicated as a risk factor for cervical cancer and is
a major cause of infertility; syphilis, which can affect the nervous
system, cause blindness, deafness, heart disease, insanity, and
result in the birth of a stillborn or crippled child; and chancroid,
which causes genital sores and enlarged lymph nodes.
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