When you think about girl sex, the first thing that comes to mind is not usually your potential for risk or needing to practice safer sex. In some ways, that makes sense: unplanned pregnancies are not a concern when you’re a girl who’s enjoying sex with another girl, so traditional contraception geared toward planned conception […]
Genital Warts, High Risk HPV, HSV2 – Just a Skin Condition – STI Interviews
Naturally, when anyone is first diagnosed with HPV or HSV2, their first thought usually centers around how they contracted the infection, with the second most common thought following shortly thereafter: who is going to want to date me now that I have a long-term infection? While some people will choose to date someone else, there […]
HPV & Chlamydia – I Asked to Use a Condom but Didn’t Insist – STI Interviews
This interview is a fantastic example of how people from all walks of life and with all educational backgrounds contract sexually transmitted infections. They are an inherent risk to something (intimacy/sex) that also elicits innumerable rewards. Understanding those risks and rewards is part of being sexually healthy, and, ultimately, sexually responsible. No one wants an infection […]
HPV, Trich & Chlamydia – I Wish I Could Go Back – STI Interviews
An HPV diagnosis, despite being one of the most common STDs, considering 80% of all women by the age of 50 will have contracted an HPV infection at some point in their lives, can still be one of the most frightening because of the grey area surrounding testing, length of infection, treatment, and long-term risk. […]
An Op-Ed about STD Stigma – Part 2
This essay was submitted anonymously after the author participated in the STI Interviews. This is part 2 of a 3 part series. The fact of the matter is, if you’re having sex, you are putting yourself at risk for an STD, and you should be getting tested for STDs. Most STDs don’t have symptoms, and the person […]
Forgotten About – Genital Warts – STI Interviews
Submitted anonymously via the contact form, this interviewee has a point: genital warts – the low-risk, wart-causing strains of HPV – are rarely addressed in the media or even via medical websites. The effect is those who’ve contracted them sometimes feel most alone. Commonly, it’s the benign forms of STDs that get publicly ridiculed – […]
HSV2 & HPV – Learning How to Deal with a New Type of Anxiety – STI Interviews
This interviewee reached out to me directly via the contact form. After exchanging a couple of emails, she asked how she could help and/or support The STI Project, so we asked her to share her story. What follows is a remarkable and insightful look into dating with an STD, the mental battle one undergoes when […]
Chlamydia, HPV, and HSV2 – STI Interviews
As an anonymous submission via the contact form, this interview touches on some pertinent issues which affect all of us who’ve contracted an STD – no matter the type of sexually transmitted infection. Across the board, stigma negatively affects all of us, and a lack of education surrounding the pathophysiology behind these infections sometimes elicits […]