Well today I learned a plethora of information that not only shocked and appalled me, but moved me SO much so, that I felt the need to write a blog post about it.
In my Health and Fitness class today we went over STDs, which have now been given the politically correct name of STI because a disease is something with clear, diagnosable symptoms and in terms of STIs, “once infected, a person may or may not develop signs or symptoms indicative of disease”.
Now, I’m not exactly 100% sheltered. I grew up in public school and did indeed get to cover sex ed., what an STD is, how to practice “safe sex”, etc., etc. I even had a pretty good idea of what kinds of STDs are out there: gonorrhea, syphilis, genital warts, HIV/AIDS, chlamydia, etc. This, I would venture, is fairly common knowledge. However, the things that my professor (who is a reliable source and has a doctorate in kinesiology), was telling us today in class, I for one had never heard before. I’m going to basically rattle off a series of the facts that I found to be most shocking. The purpose of this is really only to spread awareness, truth, and to really see what common society actually knows about sex and STD/STIs. If I’m not the norm in being shocked by these things, please let me know, but really, my first reaction to most of what I will list was simply, “Wow……..”
- Gonorrhea and chlamydia can cause arthritis, sterility, and gonorrhea can cause heart problems
- Generally only 20% of people infected with STIs show symptoms
- You can get infected an endless amount of times with any bacterial STI, and viral STIs will never go away
- Stage 4 Syphilis can cause heart disease, blindness, insanity, and brain damage. The previous stage has absolutely no symptoms at all
- You can contract syphilis from kissing
- Most people infected with HIV won’t show symptoms for 10-12 years
- The HIV virus generally cannot be detected from 2 weeks up to 6 months, and even a test cannot be fully negative until tested periodically for one year
- For this last point, I’ll just post a link to something called a “Sexual Exposure Chart”. Now, as the site explains, this chart is assuming that the people you’ve slept with have also slept with the same number of people. I suppose I just wonder how many people have slept with 12 people, because if those 12 people also slept with 12 people, you’re looking at quite the number, but I’ll let you see for yourself……. http://www.sm12tlk2.com/sexual-exposure-chart.html
Now, the point of this, again, is to just shed some light on a subject we’re completely surrounded by in the world. So, take a look, think about the fact that STDs are on the rise in America, despite the use of Sex Ed., and that about 75% of the time you may not even have symptoms to know you are infected.
Just think about it.
