Prevention is the best protection! That’s why abstaining from sex until marriage and tying the knot with an uninfected mate is the best and only safe sex. If you have had sexual intercourse in the past, you should be tested for STDs, and if you’ve already experienced symptoms, seek medical treatment immediately. Some STDs can be easily apprehended and cured once detected, but if damage has already occurred, it cannot be reversed.
There are no home remedies or over-the-counter drugs for STDs. A physician can provide penicillin or other antibiotics to treat bacterial STDs, but viral STDs such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis B can never be completely cured. Early detection, however, allows options for treatment and preventive measures that can increase your length and quality of life. Here’s how to defend yourself from America’s Most Unwanted.
“Actual use” studies of condoms show that using condoms probably reduces the risk of Chlamydia among sexually active people but does not consistently prevent against infection.
If used consistently and correctly, condoms may help reduce the risk of contracting gonorrhea. Sexually active individuals, especially those at high risk for contracting this disease, should be screened and treated each time they change sexual partners to prevent long-term complications and to prevent spreading infection to others.
Studies are lacking, but given the way Hepatitis B is communicated, condoms can only be expected to reduce—not eliminate—the risk of infection. Vaccinations are now available to all ages for prevention. If you shoot drugs intravenously or received a body piercing or tattoo with a contaminated instrument, however, you may be at risk regardless of the vaccine.
Condoms don’t cover all the skin in the genital area, and sex with an infected partner can result in herpes infection because the virus is transmitted through skin-to-skin contact. Based on limited studies, condoms appear to reduce the risk of contracting genital herpes by only half at best.
If you don’t shoot drugs and haven’t had sex, you don’t have to worry about contracting HIV/AIDS. The perfect use of condoms can reduce the chance of infection by 85 percent.1 (Wow! With only a measly 15 percent chance of contracting a deadly virus, where do I sign up?)
Since HPV is so common, those who become sexually active outside of marriage are likely to become infected by the virus, even if they use plastic protection. Condoms don’t cover all the skin in the genital area, and HPV is communicated by skin-to-skin contact.
Through perfect usage of condoms, you may reduce your chances of contracting syphilis by 30 to 50 percent.2 But remember that it’s easily transmitted through oral sex, too!
Trichomonas is transmitted through the exchange of bodily fluids, so condoms may reduce the risk of infection—however, as with other STDs, condoms provide incomplete protection.
Pubic lice don’t give a rip about a condom. They are miniscule little creatures that hide out in pubic hairs. If you don’t want them, zip it up, lock it down and sign up for the Clank! security system!
The Naked Truth is that even if you engage in “protected” sex, you still have a significant chance of contracting an STD. It’s also possible to become infected with any of these STDs, including HIV/AIDS, through oral sex. If you have already been sexually active outside of marriage, talk to your physician or health care provider about getting tested for STDs, and encourage anyone you have had sex with to do the same. Abstinence from sexual activity (including oral and anal sex) or marriage to an uninfected mate is the only 100 percent guaranteed way to avoid being infected—and that is The Naked Truth.