How to Give Her Absolute Pleasure (4 page)

bacterial infection in both North America and Europe. In 1997 the That’s why the value of trust should never go underestimated in a CDC reported 326,653 cases and estimates there are currently 3

relationship. What is often brushed aside or chalked up as one little million new occurrences annually. And 40 percent of nongonococcal indiscretion could have very serious health side effects. It’s your urethritis (NGU) in men is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis.

choice, but I suggest being safe rather than sorry. Is one night of passion worth a lifetime of having lesions break out on your penis every month—or worse?

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Epididymitis, as a result of chlamydial infection, can lead to male infertility.

The Diseases

Chlamydia is spread through oral sex and intercourse. In women The following is a list of the most common sexually transmitted it can cause a bacterial infection deep within the fallopian tubes, diseases along with their symptoms, potential dangers, and causing chronic pain, tubal pregnancies, and/or infertility. With oral treatments and/or cures. This list is for your general information. It is transmission, chlamydia can give you an upper respiratory infection.

not wise, under any circumstances, to self-diagnose when it comes to It can also be passed from mother to child during birth, causing eye, personal health. Several of these symptoms can be caused by factors ear, and lung infections in newborns. The good news is that other than an STD, and as I said earlier, many STDs can exist for a chlamydia is easily cured with antibiotics, but it must be tested for very long time before any symptoms are noticeable. If you think you specifically.

have an STD, see your doctor.

If your physician confirms your suspicions, follow the medication
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instructions with accuracy, and tell your partner or partners Although chlamydia and gonorrhea don’t manifest in the same immediately. There is no question that breaking the news can be way in women as they do in men, the results are often similar.

difficult and awkward. But she needs to know for her own health in order to get treated, and so she doesn’t potentially reinfect you. For
GONORRHEA

common in heterosexual men in certain parts of the country and very Also referred to as the clap, gonorrhea is often associated with rare in others.

another century. However, the disease is still rampant in our country today. An estimated 600,000 new cases of gonorrhea will be
HERPES

contracted in the United States this year. Similar to chlamydia, it is a What is most startling about genital herpes is how widespread it is bacterial infection that can be completely asymptomatic. In women it among the American population. It is estimated that somewhere often goes undetected until permanent damage has already occurred, between 200,000 and 500,000 new cases of genital herpes will be including sterility, tubal pregnancies, and chronic pain. However, in contracted this year and that 45 million Americans are infected men the symptoms can include a yellow puslike discharge from the already. Even more frightening is the number of people who are not penis, pain while urinating, the need to urinate often, and pain in the aware of already being infected.

lower abdomen. This STD is highly contagious and can be spread There are two viruses that cause genital herpes: herpes simplex 1, through any contact with the penis, vulvar area, mouth, or anus, even which occurs orally, and herpes simplex 2, which occurs genitally.

without penetration.

Herpes simplex 1 is typically what we refer to as cold sores on, around, or inside the lips and mouth. The visible symptoms of herpes simplex 2 include itchy bumps or tiny blisters on the genital area of
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men, typically on the shaft of the penis, at the end of the foreskin, or Epididymitis among sexually active men under thirty-five is most near the head of the penis. In women the outbreak occurs near or often caused by
Chlamydia trachomatis
and
Neisseria
inside the vagina and labia or rectum. Men can also get herpes near
gonorrhoeae
.

the anus even if they have never had anal intercourse. Sometimes herpes lesions first appear in areas related to the genitals by nerve The good news is that if detected early, gonorrhea is easily endings but not actually on the genitals. In this case, the buttocks and curable with antibiotics.

thighs are common.

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Syphilis is a very dangerous bacterial infection, and an estimated If you or your lady has active cold sores, do not receive or give 104,000 new cases in men and women will be contracted in the oral sex, as you can transmit herpes simplex 1 genitally.

United States this year. If left untreated, syphilis can be fatal and/or cause irreparable damage to the heart, brain, eyes, and joints. Forty percent of all babies born to mothers with syphilis die during It is a common myth that herpes lesions always cause great pain.

childbirth or are born with abnormal features. Symptoms are painless Usually, it is pressure on a herpes sore that makes it hurt. Herpes can sores, rash on the palms and feet, and swollen lymph nodes. This be contracted on any area of skin or mucous membrane, depending disease is highly contagious through oral, vaginal, and anal sex, as upon what area was in intimate contact with a lesion. The first well as through open wounds on the skin. When detected early, outbreak of genital herpes may last between twelve and fourteen syphilis is curable with strong doses of antibiotics. Syphilis is days, and is typically the most severe, while subsequent outbreaks are shorter in duration (four to five days) and milder. However, nowadays most people with herpes never get this first bad episode be stressful—both physically (it can be tiring) and emotionally. As and just start out with mild or asymptomatic infection.

one seminar attendee said, “When I found out I had herpes, I felt like Herpes is highly contagious when physical contact is made during a complete leper. I was furious at the guy who gave it to me and have an outbreak, but it can also be contagious when the virus appears to been celibate ever since. I wouldn’t ever want anyone to have to go lie dormant. This is because it can reactivate without symptoms in through this hell.” But others take the information in stride: “After most people with herpes. Lab studies have found that in cases in we’d had our AIDS tests and knew we were going to sleep together, which a person feels that herpes is not active, 5 percent of the time she told me she had herpes. I was pretty sure we were both okay evidence of the infectious virus can be found on the skin.

HIV-wise but this came out of left field. I won’t deny it made me The key to remember is to get any localized change or

think twice, but she has always been hypercareful about anything, so inflammation of the skin or blister or chafed area checked out while we invariably use condoms.”

you can still see it. However, if you think you have been exposed to While the symptoms of herpes virus can be uncomfortable to herpes, there is only one test, a blood test called the Western blot, those who have them, another real danger of this sexually transmitted that can make this diagnosis without symptoms. Doctors more often disease is to an unborn child or immune-suppressed individual with performviral culture tests by swabbing a lesion when it is in a very HIV or AIDS, for example. Newborn (neonatal) herpes is also a early stage of blistering or erosions.

worry, but recent information shows that this is very unlikely in I understand that it is awkward and difficult to tell your partner cases where the mother has herpes before pregnancy. It is most often that you are infected, especially in a new relationship. As one man, a transmitted during delivery and can cause painful blisters and math professor from Los Angeles, told me, “I had met this terrific damage to the eyes, brain, and internal organs of a newborn baby.

woman and I was terrified to tell her I had herpes. I remember lying One in six newborns will not survive at all.

in bed with her; we hadn’t done anything at this point, and I knew I The good news is that when knowledge of genital herpes exists, a had to tell her. I was afraid that once she knew, she wouldn’t want to cesarean delivery can generally prevent damage to the child. In fact, continue the relationship. When I told her, she wasn’t pleased to hear the risk is so low these days that women who are having recurrent the news, but I told her that I had got it from a woman who hadn’t herpes are only given a cesarean section if there is an active known she was infected. We didn’t have sex that night. After a day, symptomatic lesion present. However, the important point about she came back to me and said that she did want to continue our neonatal herpes is that it is caused by men. The woman at greatest relationship and that it was how I told her the news that made the risk for having an affected baby experiences her transmission and difference. I was thrilled.”

first episode late in pregnancy. Therefore, if you and your partner are There is no cure for this virus, though the oral medications working on getting pregnant, and you have herpes and your partner acyclovir, famciclovir, and valacyclovir have proved to be highly does not, it is paramount for you to use proper safer sex practices successful in both minimizing the symptoms of current outbreaks during the pregnancy and consider suppressive antiviral treatment.

and suppressing recurrences. Furthermore, these agents will reduce the rate of asymptomatic shedding, and studies are under way to
HPV

determine if this can reduce transmission, too.

The human papilloma virus, also known as condyloma, represents a What, precisely, determines a herpes recurrence has not been family of viruses that consists of more than eighty different types.

determined. Studies indicate there is a strong association between There will be an estimated I million new cases of HPV diagnosed herpes outbreaks and sun and stress. Yet in and of itself, herpes can this year. Certain forms of HPV cause visible genital warts, though some strains cause no warts at all. Genital warts are growths that can cause cervical abnormalities, which can be cancerous. Only the appear on the penis, scrotum, groin, or thigh. They can be raised or physician can sort this out. Genital warts can be treated in several flat, single or multiple, small or large. All sexually active men and ways, including freezing, laser surgery, and topical creams. Some are women are susceptible to contracting HPV. It is spread by direct applied by the doctor and some by the person with warts. None are contact during vaginal, oral, or anal sex with someone who has the cures. The strains of HPV that don’t produce genital warts usually go virus. In women they can be on the external or internal genitals, and undetected until a woman has an abnormality in her Pap smear.

though rare, infants can be infected during childbirth.

Genital HPV is manageable with proper diagnosis.

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Infection caused by the hepatitis B virus is not usually considered an In the Seattle study of eighteen-year-olds, 25 percent of girls who STD; however, it is spread through infected semen, vaginal had been sexually active for one year had already been infected secretions, and saliva, and it is one hundred times more infectious with HPV.

than HIV. You can get hepatitis B from vaginal, oral, or—

especially—anal sex. You can also get infected with the virus Because HPV is a virus that can lie dormant for years, you may through direct contact with an infected person via open sores or cuts.

suddenly have an outbreak after being monogamous for years. The This means that if someone in your home is infected, you can diagnosis of HPV is usually made clinically, based on appearance.

contract hepatitis B by using the same razor or toothbrush.

Special tests for the virus are available but are not generally done Hepatitis B attacks the liver. In its mildest form, you may never when you go to the doctor for a clean bill of health. No effective know you have it, but some carriers develop cirrhosis and/or liver blood test is yet available, but scientists are working on one. In the cancer. Your chances of contracting liver cancer are two hundred meantime, since there is no known cure for this disease, I suggest times higher if you’re a carrier of hepatitis B. Symptoms, when they limiting partners and using safer sex. Men need to check themselves appear, can be very much like those of the stomach flu. See your regularly, as they do for any signs of testicular abnormalities, for doctor immediately if you have nausea, unexplainable tiredness, dark example. You should also encourage the woman in your life to get urine, and/or yellowing of the eyes and skin. New effective and safe Pap smears regularly, and look for any new growths on the skin, treatments are now available. However, the vast majority of people which even if painless, should be checked out. Infectiousness who get hepatitis B as adults recover all on their own.

correlates to some extent with the appearance and disappearance of There is a vaccination for hepatitis B. It is a series of shots, given the actual lesions.

in the arm. You must have all three shots to be safe. (The hepatitis A It is important to know that the majority of people who acquire a vaccination is a two-shot series, not three.) If you know your partner strain of the virus never develop a disease. However, there are five has hepatitis B, the vaccine will protect you after you have common types of HPV that are associated with cervical cancer. The completed the shots, but you should have a test to make sure you strains that cause genital warts, though, are not the same strains responded. People with no special known risk (such as an infected associated with cervical cancer. While cancer is a rare consequence partner) probably do not need the test—just the shots. This is the in men, some women are plagued by irritating warts and/or show only STD vaccine that works and it is widely available.

abnormal Pap smears. Besides being painful, certain strains of HPV