Sexuality and STDs

sexuality

  • Abstinence: Choosing not to be sexually intimate
  • Sexually Intimate: Any behavior that can result in pregnancy or STD’s/STI’s

STIs and STDs

chlamydia

  • Most Common Bacterial STI
  • Signs:   * Women-abdominal pain, nausea, fever   * Men-discharge, painful urination, pain and swelling in testicles
  • Consequences:   * Sterility
  • *50% of infected men have no symptoms and 75% of infected women have no symptoms
  • *2 million become infected nationwide each year

genital warts

  • aka Human Papillomavirus
  • Signs:   * small growths on vagina, cervix, penis, urethra
  • Consequences:   * No permanent cure, may lead to cervical cancer
  • HPV is extremely common and infects an estimated 14 million people annually in the United States. Today 79 million living with HPV
  • There are 40 types of HPV viruses
  • The vaccine helps with the 4 most common types

herpes

  • no cure
  • Signs:   * Small sores in genital area
  • Consequences:   * During pregnancy-may cause stillbirth
  • *Around 85-90% of people don’t know they have it. An estimated 55 million (or 1 in 6) persons age 12 and older in the United States have genial herpes

gonorrhea

  • Bacterial infection
  • Signs:   * Cloudy or yellow discharge, burning during urination
  • Consequences:   * Sterility
  • *555,000 people a year in the U.S. are infected

syphilis

  • Signs:   * Chancre sore, rash
  • Consequences:   * Heart failure, blindness, mental disturbance, paralysis, and death
  • *An estimated 30,000 people become infected with syphilis each year

  in the United States.

AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome)

  • AIDS is a condition that is caused by an infection with a virus called Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).  HIV damages the immune system and eventually cripples the body’s ability to fight disease.   * HIV becomes AIDS if their T-helper cell count falls below 200 and/or they develop certain serious diseases or conditions such as pneumonia.  AIDS is the end stage of the HIV infection   * HIV is spread through:     * Sexual Intercourse     * Sharing needles     * Pregnancy:  Infected mother to child     * Blood to blood contact

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