Friends Don't Let Friends Get Chlamydia Alone

Friends Don’t Let Friends Get Chlamydia Alone….

Shayla and Niki had been best friends since elementary school. They knew everything about each other. They liked the same foods, shared the same favorite songs, and even planned to get matching cars when they could afford it. The only thing they didn’t share was boyfriends. Years ago, when they were twelve, they made a pact to never let a guy come between their relationship. No matter what! For over five years, they had stuck to that pact. Shayla was there for Niki when her boyfriend Justin broke up with her last summer. He had been her first love and she was devastated to find out he had been cheating on her. Niki had spent practically the whole summer catering to her friends emotional needs. She vowed not to get involved with anyone until Shayla was ready too again. About three months ago, right before the New Year, Shayla met someone new. Niki followed her friends path and hooked up with one of his friends. His name was Chance and he was well worth the wait. Chance and Niki immediately hit it off. The two couples started hanging out together all the time. Shalya and Parker and Niki and Chance. One night, when they were hanging out at Chance’s house, they started talking about past relationships. Even though Shayla was well over Justin, Niki still worried about her bringing it up. When she finally did, she could have never guessed what happened next. Come to find out, Chance’s ex girlfriend had hooked-up with Justin a few times last summer! That’s what really tore us apart, he told them. He thought they heen exclusive. A few months after summer ended, so did their relationship. After that night, nobody talked about their ex’s again. It was almost a taboo topic. When spring arrived, Niki and Shalya decided they were going to get on birth control. Niki had a close scare when Chance’s condom broke a couple weeks prior. To support her friend, they made an appointment. But, when the time came to go, Shayla’s period started again. Her period had been acting all freaky for the last few months. Her mom told her she was probably stressed and it was normal for a young women to have irregular periods. Since she couldn’t get an exam, she had to cancel her appointment. She didn’t want that to stop Niki, however, and so she went along with her. The doctor did an exam and started her on the pill. Niki left feeling confident, but a few days later, she got the worst call ever. The doctor’s office told her she had chlamydia. At least it was curable, but telling Chance scared her to death. She had only been with one other guy in her life. But, like a champ, they both took their meds at the same time, and waited a week before having sex again. Shalya and Parker weren’t as lucky. A couple weeks later they decided to call it quits. Shayla forgot all about rescheduling her appointment. She could have never realized at the time, the significance of the mistake she was making.

See the diagram below for the answer.

If Shayla had gone to her appointment, she would have found out that she also had chlamydia. She had been infected long before Niki. Chlamydia usually has no symptoms. A change in periods is commonly mistaken as normal, but can actually be a sign that the infection is beginning to move up into the reproductive tract.

By the time Shayla was diagnosed with chlamydia, it had turned into pelvic inflammatory disease. It caused one of her fallopian tubes to swell up, causing her severe pain. The fallopian tube became so infected that it grew scar tissue. Because of this, Shalya will most likely have a harder time getting  pregnant when she is ready. The sad truth: This happens all the time!

Shayla and Niki may not have shared boyfriends, but they still shared chlamydia. Get your friends tested too! Get tested together!

Sexual History Map

This is an example of how disease spreads within a social network. Think of all the people you know who have had sex with one of your friends, or two of your friends?

Top Three of the weirdest STD beliefs I have heard over the years

When you have been talking to people about their sex life for over fifteen years, there isn't much that surprsies you anymore. However, there have been a few moments that caused me to tip my head sideways, smirk slightly, and wrinkle my brows. Here are three for starters. THESE ARE FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

1. You can tell if a woman has an STD through ear wax. Apparantly it goes like this. First you stick your finger in your ear (not your partner's because that would just be too weird).  Then, you take your finger, with the newly acquired ear wax on it, and stick it up inside her vagina. Remove your finger from the vagina (obviously, right?). If it starts to foam (maybe like a baking soda and vinegar effect), she definitely has something going on down there. 

My advice is that if your partner starts to foam at all, move away from them quickly. They might be turning into a zombie!

2. Whole milk gives you gonorrhea. A middle aged military man, who was also a husband, so kindly enlightened me on this phenonema. He had just been diagnosed with gonorrhea and we were engaged in our normal follow-up chat. He was a very nice man, and  forthcoming about his symptoms, medications, and the questions I had. That was, until I asked him for his wife's name. It was my job to make sure she got treated too. Not expecting that question, he got very quiet. Then, so not to be rude, told me his wife didn't need treatment because she didn't drink whole milk. I thought I must have heard him wrong and asked him to repeat that. Again, he stated that he was the only one in his house that drank whole milk. Now, being an expert at reading between the lines (or sheets), I thought he must be talking code to me. I figured his wife was in the room. So, I casually answered back that it didn't matter what kind of milk she drank. If he drank the "whole milk" and took even a sip of her skim milk, she needed treatment (Wink, Wink). That is where I lost him. He went into this whole discussion about the bacteria in milk, being able to convert to gonorrhea in the body, but that it wasn't an infectious type. To this day I still do not know if he really believed that or just thought if it sounded good enough, I would fall for it. Ultimately, I wound up letting his wife know she had been exposed to gonorrhea. Of course I did it anonymously. She wasn't surprised. She didn't have any symptoms but did test positive. She got her medication without so much as a second thought. The only thing I could think of it that she must have been secretly drinking "whole milk" too.

3. You can get chlamydia from tampons. Apparently over and over and over again. This was actually a severe case of "my man knows everything" syndrome. No offense guys, because ladies do it too. It just happened to be a young teenager girl about 16 who  honestly believed that she was allergic to tampons and that kept resulting in repeat chlamydia infections. When conducting my interview with her, I noticed that she had been testing positive about every six weeks. She swore she only had one partner. Then, she added, quite reassuringly that her boyfriend's doctor told him that the reason she kept getting chlamydia was because she was allergic to the material in the tampons. They had been together about a year. She had been using tampons since she was fourteen and never had a problem until about nine months prior. She knew she didn't have chlamydia going into the relationship becuase she was tested when she went in for her depo shot before they started having sex. When she first found out, they both got treated and it wasn't a big deal. The second time she got upset because they had taken their meds at the same time and waited seven days before having sex. But, then her boyfriend had an "eye opening" talk with his doctor. Must have been Dr. Desperate 4 Excuses, because he sure had a lot of them. So, each month after her period ended, she and her partner would take their monthly dose of azithromycin and keep on going. Cake walk, right? Well, after a few hours and a several calls later, she finally saw the writing on the wall (or read the Kotex box) and figured out I wasn't lying to her. Another relationship bites the dust, but at least she can keep using tampons without the added dose of meds each month.

These are just a few of the things I have heard over the years. It's fun to share, but here is what I really want you to take from this.
1. The only way to get a sexually transmitted disease is by having oral, vaginal, or anal sex with someone who has the infection. You don't get it from whole milk or tampons.
2. The only way to know if you have an infection is to get tested for it. Ear wax is just really kinda gross.
3. Not everyone tells the truth. Don't take any chances. Testing is really easy and well worth the time. Taking care of your health is most important.
4. If you ever get an STI, your partners must be tested and treated also. You will keep getting the infection back again if they are not. And, if you have all been treated appropriately and waited to have sex, and then test positive again. Don't try to figure out how it happened. You have been re-infected and cheated on.
Ok, off my rant. Until next time....

When Chlamydia Attacks!

Most people don't really think about chlamydia and other sexually

transmitted infections (STIs) until it happens to them. Then

again, most people who get an chlamydia don't know they have it. 

That means that people all over the world are running around "not 

thinking" about the infection that just so happens to 

be attacking their most intimate body parts. Meanwhile, 

chlamydia is definitely thinking about them.The sole purpose of 

any bacteria/virus to do whatever it can to survive and 

conquer. Like a microscopic military, given orders to invade and 

take down any hostiles. You can have a raging war going on inside 

your precious privates, while you just hang out, "not thinking" 

about it. 

If this doesn't make you want to go get tested, I don't know what will! 

Am I at risk for a sexually transmitted infection (STI/STD)?

Are you sure it's an STD? How did I get it?  I don't understand, I didn't have sex with that many people. During my work as a disease investigator, I consistently (for over fifteen years) got the same few questions over and over again. It shouldn't surprise me, humans find it difficult to personalize and connect their own behaviors. I think it is just the way we're wired. When I would ask someone to tell me what behavior put them at risk for certain diseases, most people can recite it backwards. Smoking leads to emphysema, alcohol abuse leads to liver problems, obesity leads to heart attacks, and unprotected sex leads to STIs/HIV. Of course, not everyone who smokes a pack a day will have lung problems. Just like not everyone who has unprotected sex will get an STI. But, one in four people will. It will probably be chlamydia, HPV, herpes, or trichomoniasis. That is just statistics talking. But nobody really expects it to be them. And, even when they know they are doing something that puts them at risk, it is still hard to conceptualize personally. Which is pretty obvious when you look at the numbers. My experience taught me that most of infections were not due to lack of knowledge, but a lack of the ability to personalize the knowledge. That is why doctors get addicted to pain pills and yoga instructors wind up with acute stress disorder. Right? We all know better, but that doesn't matter. Knowing and believing are two entirely different subjects. This became apparent early in my career. After every sex ed spiel I gave, someone would approach me and ask me about their specific situation. I found myself saying, "well, except for the hair color..."  and "Yes, just because it was the back seat and not the bed...", or "just because he initially had on a condom but hen it miraculously disappeared" Same basic rules apply to us all. So the infamous question for me is not how to we educate people, but how can we get people to personalize their risk? I am not sure, and I am not going to try to be a behavior change extraordinaire. I too, am human and lack the ability to personalize. That is why I kept asking how the heck I gained ten pounds in two weeks over the holidays? I know I ate fudge, four holiday dinners, a few pies, and tons of other yummy gooey gourmet goodies that melt in your mouth, and in your hands (while waiting to be shoveled into your mouth).
My experience has taught me that the greater the health outcome, the more likely a person is to change the behavior. There is a significant difference when talking to a newly diagnosed HIV positive person and someone who just found out they got chlamydia. I use that example because both infections are usually asymptomatic. So, it is not the physical symptoms felt at the time of diagnosis. I believe some of it is fear based. After all, one is life-changing and one is freak out today and I'm so over it tomorrow. I am sure there are many ideas out there. I would love to hear others opinions, experiences, and stabs in the dark. Please, do tell. But, don't ask me about a particular evening in May with a brunette. Please.