Sexually Transmitted Infections
Unfortunately, a potential outcome of sexual activity is infection. Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are like other transmittable infections, except STIs are primarily transmitted through social sexual behaviors. Additionally, STIs can be transmitted through blood, and from mother to child during pregnancy and childbirth. STIs may lead to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Often, infections have no symptoms and do not lead to diseases. For example, the most common STI for men and women in the US is Human Papillomavirus (HPV). In most cases, HPV goes away on its own and has no symptoms. Only a fraction of HPV STIs develop into cervical, penile, mouth, or throat cancer (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDCP, December 2016).
There are more than 30 different STIs. STIs differ in their primary methods of transmission, symptoms, treatments, and whether they are caused by viruses or bacteria. Worldwide, some of the most common STIs are: genital herpes (500 million), HPV (290 million), trichomoniasis (143 million), chlamydia (131 million), gonorrhoea (78 million), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV, 36 million), and syphilis (6 million; World Health Organization, 2016).
Sex education is a critical tool in the fight against sexually transmitted infections. [Image: turibamwe, https://goo.gl/ iviJ3U, Public Domain]
Medical testing to determine whether someone has an STI is relatively simple and often free (gettested.cdc.gov). Further, there are vaccines or treatments for all STIs, and many STIs are curable (e.g., chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasis). However, without seeking treatment, all STIs have potential negative health effects, including death from some. For example, if untreated, HIV often leads to the STD acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)—over one million people die every year from AIDs (aids.gov). Unfortunately, many, if not most, people with STIs never get tested or treated. For example, as many as 30% of those with HIV and 90% of those with genital herpes are unaware of having an STI (Fleming et al., 1997; Nguyen & Holodniy, 2008).
It is impossible to contract an STI from a person who does not have an STI. This may seem like an obvious statement, but a recent study asked 596 freshmen- and sophomore-level college students the following True/False question, “A person can get AIDS by having anal (rectal) intercourse even if neither partner is infected with the AIDS virus,” and found that 33% of them answered “true” (Lucas et al., 2016). Specifically, anal sex, when compared to vaginal sex (the second most likely method of transmission), oral sex (third most likely), and romantic kissing (fourth most likely), is associated with the greatest risk of transmitting and contracting STIs, because the tissue lining of the rectum is relatively thin and apt to tear and bleed, thereby passing on the infection (CDCP, 2016).
A sexually active person’s chance of getting an STI depends on a varie