STIs are increasingly common, but stigma around them persists - ABC News

STIs are increasingly common, but stigma around them persists - ABC News
'Extreme' personal grooming isn't linked to increased risk of STIs - NBC News
Participating in STI screenings breaks down harmful stigmas - The Daily Orange

Posted: 28 Sep 2019 03:00 PM PDT

As many as one in eight sexually active Australians has genital herpes.

But Kristy, 38, tends to feel like she's the only one.

"I've had genital herpes since I was about 18 … and I still don't know how to deal with it," she says.

"I've been through a lot in my life. And this is the one thing I can't talk about to anyone."

Genital herpes is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the herpes simplex virus (HSV).

It's passed on through close skin-to-skin contact, and can cause outbreaks of blisters or sores on the genitals, which, once a person is infected, can continue throughout their life.

Herpes outbreaks are managed with anti-viral medicine, and most people find recurrences become milder and less frequent over time.

But it's possible for the herpes virus to spread even when a person has no symptoms, which means it's important to always use protection — and to be honest with sexual partners.

"It's been a bit of a lonely battle not really knowing how to tell partners," Kristy says.

"How do I even bring it up?

"I just feel like I'm going to get rejected."

A fear of how people might react — along with the stigma and shame that often surrounds STIs — has at times paralysed Kristy from disclosing her STI status to people she's sleeping with.

"I would [have sex] without mentioning it or even using protection with previous partners," she says.

"I have a lot of guilt around that … I just don't know how to really bring it up.

"I'm [more] prepared to feel ashamed about myself and guilt and all that, than have to tell somebody and have the repercussions of that."

STIs are on the rise

About 16 per cent of Australians report having an STI at some point in their lifetime — that's roughly 4 million people.

With the exceptions of hepatitis and HIV, Australia's most common STIs are on the rise.

Rates of chlamydia have increased substantially in the last two decades, particularly among young people. While this partly reflects an increase in testing, the vast majority of infections remain undiagnosed and untreated.

Gonorrhoea and syphilis have also been diagnosed more frequently in the past five years, largely among gay and bisexual men. Data suggests the number of new diagnoses of gonorrhoea among women has also increased.

Among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, chlamydia and gonorrhoea rates are three and seven times higher than in the non-Indigenous population, and rates of syphilis have increased, especially in remote communities.

STIs are most common among 18-29-year-olds, but there is evidence they're becoming increasingly common amongst older people too.

Most STIs are easily treated once they are diagnosed. But infections can often be asymptomatic, meaning there are no symptoms, says emergency doctor Sarah Jones.

"[Chlamydia] is the one that is most commonly asymptomatic … so it just sits there, and you infect a few other people before you really know it's there," Dr Jones said.

Gonorrhoea, on the other, tends to cause genital and anal pain and discharge in both men and women, as well as a sore, dry throat. Untreated, it can lead to fertility problems for men and women.

Syphilis, which is less common, can cause serious, long-term conditions including heart failure, blindness and brain damage if left untreated.

Managing your risk

The reticence many people feel when discussing sexual health means lots of us fail to get regular health checks or properly assess our risks, Dr Jones says.

"I feel like we spend more time judging our apples in the supermarket than we do the genitals that we're about to have sex with," she said.

A sexual health survey published earlier this year by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) found just 58 per cent of respondents had ever been tested for STIs or HIV, of which 36 per cent had been tested in the last year.

The survey also found that 69 per cent of young people didn't use a condom when having sex with regular partners, and 24 per cent didn't use condoms with casual partners.

Most young people didn't believe sexual health testing was relevant to them, Dr Philippe Adam from UNSW's Centre for Social Research in Health and lead author of the study told triple j Hack.

Dr Jones said any hesitancy to use condoms (or another form of protection) during casual sex should be pretty quickly dismissed.

"When we talk about condoms there's a lot of excuses that come back — 'my boyfriend really doesn't like using condoms' or 'sex for him isn't as good when there's a condom'," she said.

"I don't understand how the immediate response isn't: I'm offering you sex with me, with a condom, or you can go and have sex with your hand."

It's important to note that while condoms are the most effective way to reduce your risk of contracting an STI, condoms aren't failsafe, and must be used correctly every time you have sex to be effective.

Regular testing is key

How often you should get a sexual health check depends on your circumstances.

In general, the more partners that you have, the greater the risk of contracting an STI, particularly if those sexual encounters are unprotected.

Dr Jones said for people in a monogamous, long-term relationship, once every one or two years should suffice.

"If you're having a frequent change in partners and frequent casual sex, then the recommendation is as often as every three months," she said.

For people in long-term relationships with an ongoing STI like genital herpes, Dr Jones said it was important to stay "sensible and honest".

"If you haven't managed to give it to your partner, you've probably been doing all the right things," she said.

"You need to keep on doing all the right things."

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'Extreme' personal grooming isn't linked to increased risk of STIs - NBC News

Posted: 04 Sep 2019 12:00 AM PDT

A study published Wednesday found that women who practiced "extreme" grooming habits, shaving all or most of their pubic hair on a regular basis, are not at higher risk of contracting certain sexually transmitted infections, contradicting past research.

The study, published in the journal Plos One, found no correlation between pubic hair grooming and chlamydia or gonorrhea risk. Past studies, however, have found a link between grooming habits and higher rates of STIs.

The new findings come as STI rates in the U.S. continue to rise. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, STI rates have been increasing since 2013, with half of all diagnoses from 2013 to 2017 occurring in people ages 15 to 24. The most common STI, chlamydia, had 1.7 million reported cases in 2017; 45 percent of those cases occurred in women in this age group.

Given the rising rates, "it's important to find any modifiable risk factors that we can so we can design interventions and decrease the number of people affected by STIs," said Jamie Luster, who led the new study as a graduate student at the Ohio State University College of Public Health.

One hypothesis was that pubic hair grooming could be a risk factor for contracting an STI.

To study the link, the researchers recruited 214 women who were students at Ohio State University. The participants, who were predominantly white and single, answered a series of questions and got tested for gonorrhea and chlamydia at the university's health clinic. The questionnaire asked whether the participants had ever groomed their pubic hair, about their hair removal methods (shaving with a nonelectric razor was the most common), how often they groomed and how much they removed when they do.

More than half of the women identified as "extreme" groomers, meaning they had chosen to go hairless on at least a weekly basis within the past year. Almost 40 percent said they were extreme groomers within the past month and nearly all of the women reported at least some grooming in their lifetime as well as having had sex at least once. In contrast to the high rates of going hairless, less than 10 percent of participants tested positive for either chlamydia or gonorrhea and no one tested positive for both.

Because only 10 percent had chlamydia or gonorrhea but most reported grooming, the researchers concluded there was no link between how often a woman grooms and her risk of contracting the two most common STIs.

Levels of sexual activity, on the other hand, were more closely tied to extreme grooming, the researchers found: Forty percent of the extreme groomers reported having sex on a daily or weekly basis in the past year.

"Sexual frequency ... could be related to how often they groom," said Luster, who is now a researcher at Michigan Medicine.

Asking about sexual activity is important, according to Debby Herbenick, a professor of public health at Indiana University and author of "Sex Made Easy." When it comes to risk factors for STIs, "we're sometimes barking up the wrong tree with the focus on pubic hair, especially if researchers haven't asked the right questions around sexuality," Herbenick, who wasn't involved with the new research, told NBC News.

A 2016 study published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections was one of several that linked frequent pubic hair grooming to higher rates of STIs. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, surveyed more than 7,500 men and women between18 and 65. Participants reported their lifetime grooming habits, sexual behaviors and STI history. The study found that people who had undergone a below-the-belt haircut at least once in their lifetimes were almost twice as likely to have contracted at least one STI. People who groomed weekly and those who took it all off more than 11 times a year were more than three and four times as likely to have had an infection, respectively.

"Part of the challenge with this whole body of literature is that we can identify an association, but it's very difficult to imply causation," said Dr. E. Charles Osterberg, an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Texas Dell Medical School in Austin, who co-authored the 2016 study.

One possible link between grooming and STIs is that the actual grooming itself could cause microtears that make it easier for bacteria and viruses to get into the body, Osterberg said. Waxing and shaving could also irritate the skin and trigger an HPV, or genital wart, outbreak in a person who already has the virus.

Still, Luster and Osterberg said their studies were not conclusive, but rather add to the growing body of data. They agreed that further research that includes elements from both of their studies — such as racial and ethnic diversity that reflect the population, including all genders, and providing on-site STI testing that's compared to current grooming habits — is still needed.

"We really have just scratched the tip of the iceberg," Osterberg said. "If there is some association here, we could be doing tremendous due diligence in public awareness."

Whether down-there grooming has anything to do with it, one thing is clear: STIs are becoming more common. Gonorrhea rates hit historic lows in the U.S. in 2009, but have increased by more than 75 percent since then, CDC data shows. The jump is particularly concerning due to the rise in antibiotic-resistant strains of the bacteria, but gonorrhea's comeback isn't an outlier.

Reported cases of syphilis, which has been on the decline since the early 1940s, nearly doubled from 2013 to 2017, and chlamydia diagnoses remain at record highs. Herbenick said that although multiple factors are fueling the spike, falling condom use significantly increases the risk of STIs, and the popularity of long-acting forms of birth control could be to blame.

"These have been fantastic in preventing unintended pregnancies, but they offer no protection against STIs, and people aren't using condoms as often when they are using these other forms of birth control," Herbenick said. "We need people to use condoms when they have sex if we want to see a decrease in STIs."

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Participating in STI screenings breaks down harmful stigmas - The Daily Orange

Posted: 29 Sep 2019 05:50 PM PDT

STIs are uncomfortable to talk about, especially on a college campus. Students often feel shy and embarrassed to talk about sexually transmitted infections, but the truth is that talking about them can destigmatize this common reality for many students on campus. Getting tested or receiving treatment for something that could affect your body on a daily basis is crucial, and luckily Syracuse University provides multiple resources to make this accessible. The Barnes Center supplies students with plenty of sexual health tools such as contraceptives, STI testing and sexual health presentations.

On Sept. 20, SU held an event called GYT: Get Yourself Tested. GYT offers free STI testing to students in a confidential and shame-free environment.

John Jankovic, the co-chair of student life for SU's Student Association, which co-sponsored the event, said many students came to get tested.

"We purchased 150 STI kits, and all of them were used," Jankovic said.

The Student Association plans to hold two more events just like this one in the coming months.

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Although some students are clearly eager to participate in events like GYT, the stigma around STIs still persists. When it comes to getting tested for STIs, people are clearly hesitant. Forty-two percent of people between the ages of 15 and 25 who have never been tested for an STI believe they are not at risk. This is the result of a lack of education about STIs and stigmas surrounding contracting or being tested for them.

"No one should feel ashamed to get tested for an STI," Jankovic said. "We're all just college students."

Many students at SU are in the same situation. Despite being aware of the gravity of STIs, the stigma surrounding them often prevents them from taking action.

If every student takes the necessary precautions to maintain proper sexual health, the stigma surrounding STIs will deteriorate. There is simply no reason to denounce such a reasonable trip to the wellness center. Judging from the GYT turnout, plenty of SU students are already on board with being proactive when it comes to sexual health. It's time that more students follow their lead.

Next time the university holds an event like this one, seriously consider going. Jankovic suggests going with friends if you're nervous or shy about being tested.

The most important place to start in the process of destigmatizing getting tested and treated for STIs is the education students are receiving. By informing students about contracting and preventing STIs and just how easy it is to get tested on campus, they become less and less intimidating.

Walking into the Barnes Center to ask for a screening can certainly be a daunting task, but it's the first step toward changing the culture around getting tested.

The ability to maintain sexual health on campus has become so accessible through events like Get Yourself Tested, and every student at Syracuse University should take advantage of them. If students want a healthy and positive environment surrounding sexual health on campus, they must be willing to have open conversations about STIs and encourage each other to get tested.

Alex Battaglia is a freshman newspaper and online journalism major. Her column appears bi-weekly. She can be reached at abatta02@syr.edu. She can be followed on Twitter at @alex_battaglia.

Published on September 29, 2019 at 8:50 pm

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