STD Awareness Month
By: Ms. K
April is the annual awareness for STD . It’s very important that we practice safe sex. Even if your in a long term committed relationship make sure you get annually tested. I can still remember my freshman year in college almost 9 yrs ago. I can remember going to a meeting and the health office talking about practicing safe sex. At that point I was not having sex so I was listening, but not listening at the same time. When the nurse informed us that you can’t judge a book by its cover you never know if a person is affected or not affected. Make sure you wrap up!
I am not going to lie. My first time I didn’t practice safe sex, in my head I was saying “it would never happen to me.”While in my relationship I didn’t practice safe sex, even though each year I got tested. I was with him for almost 6 years yet we never got tested together. After the relationship ended, I had sex with two people (not at the same time) and I was not always practicing safe sex. I slept with one of the men for seven months, but we were not exclusive.Even though he said I was the only person he was sleeping with at the time. I can only trust his words, but I should have always practice safe sex since we were not in a relationship or even exclusive “I was trusting his words” and not my body. In my 27 years on earth I only slept with 3 people my whole life. But I was not putting my safety first. I was not having random sex with random people, but in my head I still could remember what I learn freshmen year “you can never judge a book by its cover.” Now I am practicing No SEX before Monogamy am also going to add before we both get tested as well. So while I annually get tested, I am going to follow my own advice and always wrap up!
The older I get the more I want to tell younger women to practice safe sex. Make sure to wrap up! It can always be the guy with the nice smile, good looking swag, and perfect body that can affect you. Even if your dating another women still wrap up and practice safe sex. Last month I wrote an article about the awareness of HIV “At the end of 2010 1 out of 4 people living with diagnose of HIV infection in the United States were women.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
If you are sexually active, however, you can lower your risk for getting STDs and HIV by
- Choosing one partner and agreeing to be sexually active only with each other. It is still important that you and your partner get tested for STDs and HIV and share your test results with one another before having sex;
- Limiting the number of people you have sex with if you have more than one partner;
- Using latex condoms and dental dams the right way every time you have sex.
STD & HIV Screening Recommendations
- All adults and adolescents from ages 13 to 64 should be tested at least once for HIV.
- Annual chlamydia screening for all sexually active women age 25 and under, as well as older women with risk factors such as new or multiple sex partners.
- Yearly gonorrhea screening for at-risk sexually active women (e.g., those with new or multiple sex partners, and women who live in communities with a high burden of disease).
- Syphilis, HIV, chlamydia, and hepatitis B screening for all pregnant women, and gonorrhea screening for at-risk pregnant women starting early in pregnancy, with repeat testing as needed, to protect the health of mothers and their infants.
- Screening at least once a year for syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea for all sexually active gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM). MSM who have multiple or anonymous partners should be screened more frequently for STDs (i.e., at 3-to-6 month intervals).
- Anyone who has unsafe sex or shares injection drug equipment should get tested for HIV at least once a year. Sexually active gay and bisexual men may benefit from more frequent testing (e.g., every 3 to 6 months)
Information was provided by http://www.cdc.gov/features/stdawareness/
Make sure to hashtag #gyt and #rateds4superwoman
Let us know if your going to get tested…
Rated S 