Most people have heard of someone ‘waking up with the claps’, referring to gonorrhoea. Most people have also heard of ‘the gift that keeps on giving’, referring to herpes. When the term ‘crabs’ is used to describe pubic lice, someone chuckles or laughs (to be fair, imagining miniature crabs in your pants can be amusing). Perhaps it is the seriousness of these conditions that cause us to treat them as jokes and things that you have to be really unfortunate to contract. Alternatively, perhaps we should all learn to take ‘safe sex’ a little more seriously. But, where is the fun in that, you say?
Safe sex, when it comes down to it, is
simple hygiene. Wiping your hand on your sweaty, bacteria-ridden forehead, and
then wiping it on someone else’s face is considered extremely unhygienic, and
can quite realistically lead to a rash or infection (even a punch in the face
from the other person if unlucky). So why on earth would we consider taking
some of our most bacteria-laden body parts (our genitals) and sharing them with
each other? Because, it’s fun. Obviously (I tend to think so anyway!).
With that said, it is very unhygienic, and
there lays the root cause of contracting an STI. While advances in the field of
medicine are commonplace, there are still STI’s that are untreatable, and those
that are treatable can cost a lot of money to cure or treat. A set of
statistics from 2008 in the U.S.A. stated that 110 million Americans carry
STI’s. That is a staggering amount of disease potentially running rampant when
the preventative measures are rather simple and are generally taught to
everyone at a young age (especially in the western world). Those preventative
measures are surprisingly simple when summarized: Wash your hands, wash your
genitals, and wear a condom. If everyone who has sex follows these basic steps
beforehand, the chances of contracting or spreading an STI is significantly
reduced.
It is extremely important to be aware that
even though you may have had unprotected sex, and there are no immediate signs,
you may still have contracted an STI. Often, the symptoms don’t show for many
months, possibly even years. Within these sorts of time spans, the number of
people who have come into contact with your infected genitalia, may in turn
have had unprotected sex with others, spreading the STI further. An innocent
romp can potentially create many casualties, some of these fatal. The message
is clear: wear a condom. Wear a condom. Wear a condom!
If you want to know more and be in touch with me: http://www.arianasexology.com/
