Genital herpes is common but it still carries a big social stigma, an online poll shows.

The poll included 503 U.S. adults with genital herpes and about 1,400 other adults who said they didn’t have genital herpes.

Participants answered questions about their relationships and views of
genital herpes.

They ranked genital herpes second for social stigma, out of all sexually
transmitted diseases (HIV took the top spot for STD stigma).

The poll also included a list of other potentially taboo topics, including
HIV, gonorrhea, mental illness, obesity, substance abuse, and cancer.

Most participants — 64% of those without genital herpes and 56% of those with genital herpes — said they didn’t think any of those topics were taboo. However, genital herpes was the top-ranked “taboo” topic.

Among genital herpes patients, 39% said they were troubled by societal
stigma about genital herpes. Far more genital herpes patients — 75% — were troubled by bothersome symptoms of genital herpes outbreaks.

Most people without genital herpes said they would avoid having a
relationship with someone who has genital herpes and break up with a partner who had genital herpes.

Among people with genital herpes, 36% said they tell their partners about
their genital herpes “well in advance of having sexual intercourse for the
first time,” and 68% said they were concerned about transmitting genital
herpes to their sexual partners.

But that doesn’t mean it’s easy for patients to talk to their partners about their genital herpes.

For instance, of the 325 genital herpes patients who reported having genital herpes outbreaks, 38% said they’d made up an excuse to avoid having sex during a genital herpes outbreak, instead of telling their partner about their outbreak.

Harris Interactive conducted the poll between Dec. 14, 2006, and Jan. 12, 2007. The poll was commissioned by the drug company Novartis.

Tags: genital herpes, sexually transmitted, sexual health, std

Doctors are dealing with an horrific side affect of abuse - more children with sexually transmitted diseases.

Instances of chlamydia, gonorrhoea, pelvic inflammatory disease and genital warts are all increasing and doctors blame child abuse.

The children have contracted diseases as a result of sexual abuse, often at the hands of relations or care givers.

Doctors say the statistics show nearly 7 percent of abused children get a sexually transmitted disease, and since many abuse cases go unreported, they suspect the true figures are much worse.

In Auckland between 1991 and 2002 14 cases of gonorrhoea were confirmed in young children, and in the 20 cases of chlamydia, four patients were five or six-year-old girls. An eight-year-old girl had both.

“People think these are low figures but we need to realise only one in six children who present with suspected sexual abuse actually gets a medical examination,” Te Puaruruhau child abuse unit clinical director Patrick Kelly says.

A paediatrician, he says silence allows the problem to be ignored.

Dr Kelly’s Grafton Rd unit brings police, the hospital and Child, Youth and Family together.

He says in 13 of the 14 gonorrhoea cases the children had not been taken to the doctor for sexual abuse, but instead for genital symptoms, and the disease was picked up on a routine swab.

“There are no numbers yet to support our belief that significantly more cases could exist. But we all know the majority of sexual abuse cases are not even disclosed.

“When a child is found to have a sexual disease the repercussions for the family are enermous, especially if no one owns up,” he says.

“The effect is felt by the whole family because they are all investigated.”

Dr Kelly says there are sometimes lifelong consequences for abused children.

Another problem was people’s belief that the medical examination of a child was traumatic.

However, specialists dealing with children were well-trained and the examination was brief and non-invasive.

“We approach children as a whole person, not just as a victim of abuse,” he says.

Often other health issues were also found because abused children rarely saw a doctor.

Statistics show 17 percent of girls and 4 percent of boys have been sexually abused by the time they are 16, and for 6 percent of girls that includes rape.

Between 1991 and 1998 three-year-old girls were most often referred for suspected sexual abuse, followed by two and four-year-old girls. The next most vulnerable age was 11 and then 14-year-old girls.

Dr Kelly says physical symptoms in children can be shortlived or trivial, but nearly always show in some way.

“While it simply may not occur to most people to consider sexual diseases when dealing with children, in the climate of child abuse we have here, it certainly should.”

source

When Jane Fowler hit the dating scene after her 23-year marriage ended in divorce, she didn’t think she needed to use protection when she had sex. “I wasn’t worried about getting pregnant,” says the 72-year-old retired journalist from Kansas City, Mo., “and the man I was seeing was an old friend, also recently divorced.” So she was shocked to learn, after having a routine blood test in 1991, that she’d been infected with HIV, a nightmare she hopes to help others avoid by lecturing at senior health fairs. “My mantra is that you never know the sexual history of anyone but yourself.”

With Viagra and Internet dating sites at their fingertips, a growing number of seniors are enjoying a renaissance between the sheets, but some are paying the piper, contracting sexually transmitted diseases. As HIV carriers live longer, the majority will be over age 50 by 2015, and even now about 15 percent of new infections occur in this age group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other STDs, including herpes, chlamydia, and human papillomavirus, which is linked to cervical cancer, are also making the rounds. “While it’s a good thing that older people are more sexually active, they need to connect the dots, see that they’re at increased risk, and make sure they use condoms,” says Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Unsafe at any age. But many folks haven’t gotten the message. In a small survey conducted by University of Chicago researchers, nearly 60 percent of unmarried women ages 58 to 93 said they didn’t use a condom the last time they had sex. Even more disturbing, an Ohio University study found that about 27 percent of HIV-infected men and 35 percent of HIV-infected women over 50 sometimes have sex without using condoms.

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Tags: sexual health, seniors, single seniors, senior dating