Is there such a thing as Safe Sex?

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Cunning little critters

"It's been going on since Adam was a Lad"  my dear old Mum used to say - sex that is! Talk to any (well nearly any)  hormonally charged young man or woman and they'd probably say it's the best thing on the planet. That was until mobile phones and virtual reality spoiled it all! For us of a more measured generation who are still used to answering/not answering land-lines, it's still way up there as one of the best experiences life has to offer.
The trouble with sex is, well, it really is THAT good and as a result advertising promotes the idea that the more you get the better it must be. Just think of all those boozey beer adds with beautiful young people eyeing each other off. They certainly don't look like they're heading to the library to study together. And I needn't mention those erotic adverts for what appears to be a jeweled ribbon appearing out of a model's buttocks and sold for a fortune as a 'thong' or 'G'string.
Selling bulk sex reminds me of why Vitamin supplements appear to be so popular. The promoters of such supplements appear to work on the idea that if a little is great to keep the human body healthy, then a Mega-Dose will be even better! Sadly, neither appears to be the case.
But back to sex. If it's so good then what could be wrong with it?
Call me old fashioned, but from my reading of the literature over the decades it seems to me that the safest/best sex is had in monogamous relationships and not by spreading it around with every consenting adult you can find. Why?

Because sex can be a real health risk!

• Chlamydia - can make females sterile by irreversibly damaging their 'tubes'.
• Syphilis - an ancient scourge that can even kill or send you mad!
• Gonorrhea - another ancient scourge making a big comeback
• Herpes - as one wit said "Not only love lasts forever - Herpes does too!"
• Hepatitis B - can develop into a potentially life threatening disease.
• Genital warts - now linked to the development of Cervical cancer and the target of a new vaccination program for young people
• HIV - a sexually transmitted disease that has spread globally and still defies any cure

Then of course we must consider what coitus is also about - as well as all those nice fuzzy bits - the making of babies ... AKA conception.

If a male has vaginal sex with a woman there is always the potential for conception. Period (no pun intended)

This has been brought home to me in the last two weeks when I've seen one woman conceive who was on the pill and another who conceived who'd had her "tubes tied" 3 years previously! Believe me, those spermatozoa are devious little critters who will always find a way to a friendly egg.

So the next time you think about some recreational procreation/horizontal folk dancing or whatever the current epithet is, just beware that you may be leaving with more than just a happy memory - you may be changing your life (or someone else's) forever.

Sex in 2012

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 What better way to start a new year than with an article on Sex, the physical activity that has literally been around since "Adam was a lad"! What brought my mind to ponder the subject of sexual intercourse was a headline in our regional newspaper proclaiming that the rate of Sexually Transmitted Infections had risen in the past year and part of the reason was an increase in the number of sexual partners that teenagers were having. I think I also read, not that long ago that STIs were also on the increase amongst the "Grey Brigade" who tend to shun the use of condoms believing that "it will never happen to me".

Well let me tell you, young and old, that I have some seriously bad news for you. A quick look at the WHO statistics tells me that:

• 448 million new infections of curable sexually transmitted (syphilis, gonorrhoea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis) infections occur yearly.
• Some sexually transmitted infections exist without symptoms.
• In pregnant women with untreated early syphilis, 25% of pregnancies result in stillbirth and 14% in neonatal death.
• Sexually transmitted infections are the main preventable cause of infertility, particularly in women. 

Please note from the above quote that only four causes of STIs are mentioned  -syphilis, gonorrhoea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis - when in fact there are over 30 different bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi that are spread sexually and the 26 not included in this WHO list include HIV, Hepatitis B & C, Herpes, the Papilloma or wart virus etc. The number of people suffering from Hepatitis B is alarming, about 2 billion people worldwide have been infected with the virus and about 350 million live with chronic infection. And for Hepatitis C, the numbers are not as great, but the mortality is eye-opening: about 130–170 million people are chronically infected with hepatitis C virus, and more than 350 000 people die from hepatitis C-related liver diseases each year.

And if you have an untreated STI, you have a 10 times higher risk of contracting and transmitting HIV!

Sadly, women are the more vulnerable group as they can often harbor some infections without knowing that they have the disease. This is particularly so in the case of Chlamydia, the complications of which can lead to infertility and ectopic pregnancies: here's more from the WHO:

• 10 - 40% of women with untreated chlamydial infection develop symptomatic pelvic inflammatory disease.
• Post-infection tubal damage is responsible for 30 - 40% of cases of female infertility. 
• Women who have had pelvic inflammatory disease are 6 - 10 times more likely to develop an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy than those who have not
• 40 - 50% of ectopic pregnancies can be attributed to previous pelvic inflammatory disease.

The ancient diseases of Syphilis and Gonorrhoea can lead to the following problems:

• In untreated early syphilis, 25% of pregnancies result in stillbirth and 14% in neonatal death – an overall perinatal mortality of about 40%.
• Up to 35% of pregnancies among women with untreated gonococcal infection result in spontaneous abortions and premature deliveries, and up to 10% in perinatal deaths.

 With the mobility of people comes the increased risk for exposure to these life changing, and life threatening diseases because with literally billions of people carrying such infectious diseases, the chances of getting one through casual sexual encounters are remarkably high. So my message to young and old alike is, if you think you might "get lucky" at the next party you go to, don't be surprised if you get more than you bargained for! According to the WHO again: "The most effective means to avoid becoming infected with or transmitting a sexually transmitted infection is to abstain from sexual intercourse (i.e., oral, vaginal, or anal sex) or to have sexual intercourse only within a long-term, mutually monogamous relationship with an uninfected partner." Now that sounds like a lot of sense to me.
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