Teacher: It is important to disclose STI status to all sexual partners.
Student: “Well I don’t have any STIs, but if I did I wouldn’t have any trouble
telling my partners about it.”
Voiceover: Well maybe.
But it’s possible neither of those things are true.
Let’s talk about STIs.
[intro music]
Hi everyone!
My name is Sarah, and welcome back to Everyday Consent.
Talking about Sexually Transmitted Infections with your partners, also known as STIs or
STDs, is an important part of informed consent.
Knowing your partner’s STI status helps you to know the health risks involved in having
sex with them and make informed decisions about how you want to protect your health.
But if a partner did tell you they had an STI, how well would you really understand
what that meant for you and your relationship?
There is a lot of stigma and misinformation out there about STIs.
Myths about STIs are so common that even if you did have decent sexual education, you
might still believe some of them yourself.
Being misinformed in this way can make having a meaningful conversation with your partner
about STI risks more difficult and scary than it needs to be.
To help make those conversations a little easier, today I want to dispel my top Five
Common Myths About STIs.
Myth #1: STIs are really rare, or only happen to irresponsible people or people who don’t
use condoms
In truth, STIs are very common.
In the US, 1 in 4 teens will contract an STI each year.
And fully half of all sexually-active people in the US will contract an STI by the time
they turn 25.
The Center for Disease Control reports that most sexually-active people will get at least
one type of HPV in their lives, and several strains of that virus can cause Genital Warts
or Cervical Cancer.
The World Health Organization estimates that two-thirds of the entire world population
under the age of 50 has HSV-1, which is one of two strains of the virus that causes both
oral and genital Herpes.
While Safer Sex methods such as condoms can prevent or greatly reduce the chance of spreading
many STIs, some STIs such as HPV and Herpes are spread through skin-to-skin contact.
This means that condoms cannot fully protect against transmission of these STIs during
sex.
And it also means that these STIs can be spread through completely non-sexual contact, such
as your Great Aunt Sally giving you a kiss on the cheek when she has a cold sore.
So STIs are super common and even if someone is really “responsible” and uses condoms
every time they have sex, or doesn’t have sex at all, they can still contract an STI.
Myth #2: Everyone that has an STI knows that they have an STI
Haha, nope!
It is extremely common to have an STI and not know it.
First of all someone might not be experiencing any symptoms.
According to the World Health Organization, the majority of STIs have no symptoms or only
mild symptoms that may not be recognized as an STI.
That’s why regular testing for STIs is recommended regardless of whether you’re actually showing
symptoms.
But okay, at this point you’re probably thinking, “Okay Sarah, I know, you gotta
get tested.
But I’ve been tested recently and they all came back negative.
So I know I don’t have anything.”
Well, the thing is, even if you marched to your doctor’s office, head held high, and
proclaimed “I would like a full STI panel, please!
Give me everything you’ve got!”
most places will actually only test you for things that they think you are at risk for
based on things like age, gender, ethnicity, location,and sexual history.
So if, for example, you are in a population determined to be at very low risk for Syphilis,
many places will not test you for Syphilis for cost or insurance reasons unless you specifically
ask them to.
Insurance might also only cover one out of multiple potential infection sites for STIs
like Gonorrhea and Chlamydia.
Your answers to sexual history questions will usually be used to determine the best site
to test.
In both of these cases it’s worth noting that your healthcare provider really is trying
to give you the tests you are most likely to need.
But that’s very different from giving you every test, and it is always possible that
something is being missed.
And then there’s Herpes.
Oh, Herpes.
Unless you are experiencing an outbreak that can be swabbed, you will not be routinely
tested for Herpes.
That’s partially because a positive blood test with no outbreak won’t tell you when
or how you got it or whether you have genital Herpes or oral Herpes, also known as “cold
sores”.
And since Herpes is so common--remember that whole “two-thirds of the world population”
thing?--it’s commonly considered not worth knowing whether you have it or not.
On a similar note, regular STI screening usually doesn’t include HPV testing as there are
literally hundreds of different strains.
So basically, even if you have been tested regularly and recently, you might not know
your status for every infection.
Also it’s pretty likely you have Herpes or HPV.
Just sayin’.
Myth #3: STIs are all REALLY SCARY AND LIFE-THREATENING.
Let me be clear, if left untreated, many STIs can have very serious health consequences.
BUT.
As long as you have access to decent healthcare, don’t panic.
Many STIs are curable, and all of them are treatable.
Any bacterial infection like Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, or Syphilis is completely curable with antibiotics.
Viral infections like Herpes, HIV, and HPV are not curable, but are treatable.
Herpes in particular actually has very little impact on overall health, but medication can
help reduce outbreaks and transmission rates.
HIV is still a very serious infection, but really impressive strides have been made in
treatment.
An HIV diagnosis is not the death sentence it used to be in the 80’s.
Many people living with HIV today are at low risk for contracting AIDS, have life expectancies
almost as long as people without HIV, and live pretty healthy lives.
Myth #4: If you have an STI you can never have sex again without spreading it.
Remember the last section?
Where I said a bunch of them are curable?
If you contract a curable STI and you cure it, it’s gone!
You’re not going to spread it.
Unless you catch it again, so make sure your partners seek treatment as well so you don’t
keep giving it back to each other.
As for viral infections, treatment and other precautions can greatly reduce the chance
of transmission.
According to the organization Herpes Opportunity, daily suppressive therapy can reduce risk
of Herpes transmission by 38%.
And condoms can further reduce transmission by 30-50%.
HIV transmission can also be greatly reduced by treatment, use of condoms, and HIV-negative
partners taking medications such as PEP or PrEP.
I’ll leave more info in the description.
Myth #5: If you have an STI, disclosing is a simple matter and anyone who doesn’t is
evil or irresponsible.
As I said earlier, it is important to let a partner know if they are at risk for contracting
an STI by having sex with you.
However, that can be a really scary and difficult thing to do.
Having an STI is hugely stigmatized in our society.
Due to lots of factors, such as general sexual stigma, lack of adequate education, and all
the myths we just talked about, people with STIs are characterized as modern-day lepers.
They’re seen as irresponsible, disgusting, and broken.
If you have an STI, you might worry that your partner or your friends or family will think
all those things about you.
And when you tell your partner about your STI they might get angry or scared because
they’re worried about becoming all of those things themselves.
Depending on the situation, you might be afraid of them breaking up with you, or even becoming
physically violent because of that anger.
For these reasons there are many resources out there with tips and ideas for how to disclose
to a partner, and in some cases how to do so anonymously.
I’ll leave links to some in the description.
Okay, so, what have we learned today?
Hopefully we’ve learned that having an STI is not so simple as being “clean” or not,
and that people with STIs are people.
They are most people, in fact, and they might include you and people you care about.
Hopefully this information will make discussions with your partners about STIs just a little
bit easier.
Let me know down in the comments if that’s actually true and today’s video was helpful
or if you’d like me to go into more detail about anything I covered today.
If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up, and if you want to see more from
me, don’t forget to subscribe.
Happy consenting folks, I’ll see you next week!