How to reduce your risk for STIs
Unprotected sex, AKA sex without the use of a condom, is astoundingly common. Among teens and young adults, fully 69% report recently having unprotected sex. No wonder around half of sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, such as gonorrhea and syphilis show up in teens and 20-somethings. Older adults aren't much more careful. New information shows the incidence of STIs in adults ages 55 and older has exploded. Since 2010, there have been seven times more reported cases of gonorrhea. Chlamydia rates have more than quadrupled. And in 2022, syphilis cases were nearly eight times higher.
Reasons given for unprotected encounters include not planning on having sex and not liking condoms. Not smart. While STIs are treatable, if not always curable, they can cause serious damage. For example, chlamydia, which affects around 4 million people a year, can cause pelvic inflammatory disease in females that leads to scarring in the fallopian tubes. In males, it can trigger sore, swollen testicles. HPV is another common STI and can lead to cancer of the throat, cervix, vagina and anus. Liver-damaging, hepatitis A and B and immune-system destroying HIV are also STIs.
The great news is that there are very effective vaccines for hepatitis A and B as well as HPV. In fact, the HPV vaccine for anyone age 9 to 45 provides almost 100% protection against the pre-cancers that persistent HPV infections can cause. For other STIs, it's smart to be tested regularly. If you have unprotected sex or multiple partners, put more joy into intimacy by being safe.
Dr. Mike Roizen is the founder of www.longevityplaybook.com, and Dr. Mehmet Oz is global advisor to www.iHerb.com, the world's leading online health store. Roizen and Oz are chief wellness officer emeritus at Cleveland Clinic and professor emeritus at Columbia University, respectively. Together they have written 11 New York Times bestsellers (four No. 1's).
(c)2024 Michael Roizen, M.D.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
(c) 2024 Michael Roizen, M.D. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
