According to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teenage girls who have unprotected sex and engage in other risky sexual behavior may underestimate their odds of getting a sexually transmitted disease.
About 89 percent of the 209 girls studied felt that they were at little to no risk of getting an STD.
Director of Clinical Services at University Health Services, Scott Spear, said the university population has a fairly good sense of STD risk, however. In particular, Spear said he feels that most college students understand that some sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, can be present without noticeable symptoms.
According to Spear, most women infected with a virus such as chlamydia show no symptoms and therefore go untreated. But when the infection is not treated, more serious conditions can arise, including pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, tubal pregnancies and chronic pain. Women with chlamydia also have a three-to-five times higher risk of HIV infection if exposed.
The CDC’s report found that 74 percent of the girls studied engaged in risky sex, had symptoms of an STD or had an STD in the past. Why so many girls with such bad track records would assume they were at little to no risk for an STD is still unclear to Dr. Kathleen A. Ethier, the leader of the study.
“Adolescents may either be uninformed about or ignoring their risk for sexually transmitted diseases,” Ethier said.
The CDC reported only 500,000 documented cases of chlamydia last year, but according to the center’s website, it is estimated that there are really 3 million new cases that went unreported.
“Untreated women are a reservoir to transmit the infection to other people in our fairly promiscuous society,” said George Mejicano, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin. “We’re drowning in chlamydia and most people don’t have a clue.”
Another STD that is treatable upon detection is gonorrhea, but 50 to 80 percent of infected women have no symptoms and are not treated until more serious health problems arise. The CDC documents approximately 400,000 cases of gonorrhea per year in the United States, but estimates put this number closer to 800,000.
Assistant professor of medical microbiology for the UW, Joseph Dillard, said college- and high school-aged women are most at risk for STIs.
“The most at-risk group for gonorrhea is women ages 15-19 followed by women 20-24,” Dillard said. “Women in college are at the highest risk for infection.”
Mejicano feels that the rising numbers of undetected STDs are a result of student ignorance.
“Young people in general are unaware of the risks,” he said. “There is a disconnect between action and consequence.”
However, Spear said he still feels that the UW’s female students are greatly concerned about their sexual health. He reports that many women on campus come to UHS’ women’s clinic for their annual gynecological exams and often request STI screening. The Blue Bus Clinic on campus is available for male and female STD/STI screening.
“This is such a secretive issue in our society, but we need to talk about it,” Spear said. “We need to talk about values and honesty in relationships and stop denying that we are sexual beings.”
