Take care of yourself!

Most of us are smart enough to not fuck total strangers without protection. Most of us know where we can get tested for STDs, and most of us know how to use a condom. Most of us, to put it mildly, are a hell of a lot more informed about how to be sexually responsible than people our age were a generation ago.

Yet many of us are still getting infected. The Oregon Department of Human Services reports 2,868 reported cases of chlamydia in 2005 from Multnomah County alone, up from 2,543 in 2004, and preliminary data for 2006 suggests another increase. Statewide, Oregon had a rate of 248.3 new infections per 100,000 people last year, and this is actually lower than the nationwide rate, 332.5 per 100,000 people.

The numbers for other infections aren’t as scary. Infection rates for HIV and gonorrhea have become stable in Oregon, and early syphilis is declining, with only 57 cases diagnosed in the state in 2005. But, in an age of increased awareness and education efforts, stable rates of infection (let alone the rising rates of chlamydia) shouldn’t be considered acceptable.

It really can’t be said enough: If you’re sexually active, use protection and get tested regularly. It’s easy to justify not doing so. It’s easy to skirt. It’s easy to forget that condoms are not completely safe, they’re just safer. It’s easy to tell ourselves we’re decent enough judges of character that we know whether we can trust people who say “I’ve been tested,” and even for those who are telling the truth, it doesn’t mean they’ve been tested for every infection, or since their last partner.

Even those who claim to know the sexual history of their partners are unlikely to know the history of the partners of their partners, or their history of IV drug use, even if it was just once. It doesn’t help that infections don’t always have immediate symptoms, and in some infections like genital herpes, HPV (the disease that causes genital warts and, in rare cases, cervical cancer), and chlamydia in women, having symptoms is the exception, as opposed to the rule.

Nor does it help that HIV can incubate the body for months (and, in rare cases, up to a year) without being detected. Nationwide, one out of five people aged 12 and older have been infected with genital herpes, and the CDC estimates that half of sexually active men and women will acquire HPV at some point during their lives. Scary stuff.

All of this should have been taught in school, but it wasn’t. It still isn’t, and that’s not acceptable either. Even for those of us lucky enough to have escaped repressive abstinence-only education, it’s still not enough when infection rates are not declining.

What if comprehensive sex education taught how and when to get tested for infections? What if it taught about the current issues surrounding different STDs, including which ones are the most common and the chances of having symptoms?

What if sex education taught how to truly be a responsible, sexually active adult, and did it repeatedly and consistently throughout public schooling? Maybe comprehensive sex education could stand to be a little more comprehensive.

But in the meantime, we have to educate ourselves. Talk to your doctor. Talk to Planned Parenthood, who will test you privately and, provided you make under a certain amount of money, for free (their local appointment number is 503-788-7273). Do your own research, http://www.cdc.gov/std is only a click away, and so is Google if that’s not enough. Spend the time. It’s worth it.

Don’t get me wrong, I personally am all for wild excessive sex with lots of partners, and no one ever has the right to give someone shit for the decisions they make about their own bodies. But with an issue like this, it can never be just about our own bodies. It’s something we’re all in together