This week in SPM we cover a touchy subject, the student body and sexually transmitted diseases. I know it’s a bummer, from a recession story last week now to STDs, we’re a fun bunch over here. But believe me, it’s all for your own good. Or at least this week’s is.

April is STD Awareness month, so lets talk about that a little. STDs are not only potentially harmful to your health, but can be kinda embarrassing. Yeah, you may go home bragging about who you hooked up with the last night, but you probably aren’t going to be bragging about what diseases they passed on to you when you get diagnosed later.

You’re all adults and should know enough to use protection and common sense when it comes to getting possible, oh I dunno, potentially fatal diseases, right? So I’m not going to even cover that middle-school conversation. But not everyone is so savvy about going and getting tested. Let me say this: You should do it. If you’re sexually active, it is in your and everyone you add to your oh-so-exclusive hookup list’s best interest. Not to mention everyone on their hook-up list subsequent to you.

As Kelsey Haven’s points out in her article “The HPV Problem,” men are often carriers of HPV and have no symptoms (or ill-effects from the virus, unfairly enough) indicating what they’re passing off to their sexual partners. Other STDs can also go undetected or unannounced for periods of time, long enough to pass them on to others. According to the Centers for Disease Control, those with genital herpes oftentimes never experience any sores or have symptoms so mild the virus goes undiagnosed. There is currently no cure for herpes, which not only can cause painful sores but also makes those infected more susceptible to HIV infection. According to the CDC, most women infected with gonorrhea, or “the clap,” experience no symptoms. Gonorrhea is mostly treatable, but when left untreated it can cause infertility in men and pelvic inflammatory disease in women. Chlamydia is a “silent” disease according to the CDC, because “about three quarters of infected women and about half of men infected men have no symptoms.” While men are generally unharmed by the STD, Chlamydia can cause serious short and long-term health problems in women.

If all of that — the threat of possible lifelong sores, infertility and other unpleasant side effects or the thought that you might unwittingly be bestowing those upon someone — isn’t enough to getting you running to get tested, well then, you’re on your own. They have online dating sites specifically for those diagnosed with STDs and looking, so maybe they should make a site for those who are sexually active, untested and looking. It’s all about the niche market these days anyway. And the less likely you are to run into someone too careless to protect themselves or those they hook-up with in the dating pool, the better.

Reach the reporter at lana.burke@asu.edu.

For more information on STDs go to: http://www.cdc.gov/std/
To make an appointment at your local Arizona Planned Parenthood call:
1-800.230.PLAN (7526) or make an appointment online at http://www.ppsaz.org.
To make an appointment to get tested at the Tempe ASU Campus Health Clinic call:
(480) 965-3349
To make an appointment to get tested at a Maricopa County Health Department public clinic call: (602) 506-1678