Thread: Avoiding STDs
View Single Post
Old 09-27-2008, 11:27 AM   #24 (permalink)
little_tippler
Leaning against the -Sun-
 
little_tippler's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: on the other side
Quote:
Originally Posted by abaya View Post
Women get tested for HPV at every annual exam--that's part of the reason we have the whole pap smear thing, regardless of whether we exhibit outward signs or not. Do men have something similar? Last I heard, the only evidence for HPV in men is when they break out. Otherwise, there is no way to tell if a man is carrying it. And yes, xerxes, you can most definitely get it while using protection. Any skin-to-skin contact in the genital area can transmit it. Basically, you'd need to have a condom that had a massive base that covered your entire genital area to be "protected" from it... but of course, those aren't really available.
Ok, the test that some women get every year for HPV only tests for a small area of the genitals, which is near the cervical area. It's also not a test for HPV exactly, it's a test for any abnormally developing cells. So it's not a guarantee. That being said, having HPV is not as terrible as that because 80% of the population do carry it. From the day you start having sex it's highly likely you've exchanged HPV strains with sexual partners, though the ones you have to be wary of are strains 16 and 18 (associated with cervical cancer). Less agressive strains tend to show up mainly externally (if at all) and can cause maybe a handful of warts that can just be lasered or frozen off. Usually with these strains you can have symptoms once and then never again, though the virus will still be present in your body. There are plenty of viral infections that people exchange all through their lives but don't ever have symptoms of. It's actually quite a normal part of life.

The STD's people should be most scared of are HIV, of course, because there is no bullet-proof cure for it, and those that affect fertility or any other function of your body irreversibly, IMO. Most others are treatable, though of course it sucks to get any. For most sexually active women, STD related ailments such as UTI's are a regular part of life.
__________________
Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.


Fernando Pessoa, 1918
little_tippler is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360