In that special moment does your mind race as finger tips touch and lips tremble? Do you try to formulate that question you may never ask: “Is there anything I should know before we let this go any further?”
“Have you been tested for STD?” is a difficult but must-be-asked question before beginning an intimate relationship.
But acknowledging one is a carrier of a sexually transmitted disease is never easy.
“It is way easier said than done,” said Juday Marshall, a DVC student. “Because it’s really stressful and that’s a really big part of your life, so it’s going to affect the other person greatly.”
Of 28 students recently polled in Barbara Hewitt’s human sexuality class, all 28 students agreed it is important to get tested for STD’s because it is vital to everyone’s well being.
Twenty-four students said they would tell a partner they had an STD by beginning, “Listen, I have something serious to tell you.”
And 20 said they would ask a partner, “So have you been tested”? While eight preferred, “This is awkward, but have you been tested?”
But it is not a conversation taking place as often as necessary.
A national study revealed in March that at least 1 in 4 girls in the United States has a sexually transmitted disease.
And among those who admitted to having sex, 40 percent had an STD, according to researchers with the U.S Centers for Disease Control, as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle March 12.
STD’s are spread from one person to another through intimate sexual contact such as sexual intercourse, oral-genital contact, or anal sex.
The Human Papilloma virus or HPV and Chlamydia are the most common STD’s according to Robin Poppino-Kuntz, regional director of Planned Parenthood of Pittsburg.
HPV is a virus that affects the skin in the genital area, and Chlamydia is a treatable bacterial infection that can scar the fallopian tubes and affect a women’s ability to have children. Gonorrhea, another common STD, is a venereal disease that inflames genital organs.
Of 478 tests in January for Gonorrhea and Chlamydia, 25 were positive for Chlamydia and two were positive for Gonorrhea, Poppino-Kuntz said.
“We rarely use to have a positive Gonorrhea test five or 10 years ago, and now we are seeing positive every month,” she said.
“I think that STD’s are so common because people don’t use condoms, and dudes tell girls that sex feels better without a condom on,” said DVC student T’ara West.
Human sexuality professor Hewitt said STD rates have gone up for a variety of reasons. Among them: Pathogens of germs have changed so they tend to mutate, get stronger and become more resistant to antibiotics; people are less likely to ask to be tested for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea; and they are less likely to communicate with their partner about when they think they have been exposed.
“I don’t think it’s the behavior that has changed,” Hewitt said. “I think it’s the germs and the lack of screening.”