by Dr. W. Gifford Jones
January 15, 2006
"What a unique way to get attention" I thought as I opened the morning's mail. What usually arrives on my desk is a host of medical reports. So I was surprised when two condoms fell out of one envelope. I wondered what was expected of me at 10:00 a.m.? And have I since put these condoms to good use?
Eventually I discovered that Toronto Public Health had initiated a communication campaign for doctors to alert young people to the dangers of sexually transmitted infections (STI), particularly chlamydia. To see the whole campaign visit www.gettested.ca
The package also contained informative posters about STI for examining rooms and an offer to doctors of a free supply of condoms for patients. It was hoped this would send a positive signal to young patients that doctors are willing to discuss sexual topics.
Most people are surprised to hear that chlamydia, not gonorrhea, syphilis or AIDS is the # one reported STI among men and women.
The statistics are shocking. For instance, in Canada gonorrhea infects just 28 per 100,000 people and AIDs one in 100,000 women. Chlamydia strikes one in five women ages 15-25.
Chlamydia is a world-wide problem. Boston's Health Commission issued even more startling findings. It revealed that two per cent of that city's 15 to 19 year olds have chlamydia and a whopping six percent of Boston's disadvantaged girls were infected with this disease. In Baltimore's teenage girls the infection rate is an astonishing 30 percent
Intelligence is no guarantee against STI. A study of college students showed that one in every 100 were infected with chlamydia. And whether an A or F student, eight out of every ten women and 50 percent of men who have chlamydia don't know they have this infection.
When symptoms are present they usually start within two to six weeks after exposure to an infected partner. Women complain of increased vaginal discharge along with frequent and painful urination. Or there may be low abdominal pain. For men penile discharge, painful urination and scrotal pain are the main symptoms.
But women bear the brunt when infected with chlamydia. Untreated cases of this infection may spread to the internal organs resulting in pelvic inflammatory disease.
If this occurs, women complain of pelvic pain, fever, pain and pain with sexual intercourse. This may cause permanent damage to the fallopian tubes and ultimate sterility. Damaged, scarred tubes are also more likely to result in tubal pregnancy. It's a terrible price to pay for unprotected sex. Especially when Chlamydia can be treated and cured by a course of antibiotics.
Hopefully Toronto's campaign will save some teenagers from this tragedy. The ones who think at this age that they're invincible and it won't happen to them.
But it will take this campaign and many others to convince women and men that unsafe sex is dangerous and that condoms are the first line of defense. And no doubt I must sound like a broken record reminding my patients, day after day, both teenagers, and others, to practice love like porcupines, very, very carefully.
Consider that a Canadian study revealed that 50 percent of teenagers were involved in sex, and many not using condoms. And that 16 percent of university students were having anal sex. That's like playing with dynamite as it's a dangerous route for transmission of AIDS and other STI's.
I've given one of my free condoms to a teenage patient who told me she was using the pill as she's now in "a relationship". I reminded her that this was the fourth time in the last year she's had a relationship! And that she was playing Russian roulette with sex. I suggested she get her brain into high gear.
The second free condom went to an intelligent divorced woman who has a MBA degree, but who suffers from cerebral amnesia about sex. She had sex with the ship's surgeon during a Caribbean cruise without using a condom. I informed her that I've known several ship's surgeons. They were hardly paragons of virtue and not immune to disease.
Needless to say, I've ordered more condoms for my not-so-bright patients.
W. Gifford-Jones M.D is the pen name of Dr. Ken Walker graduate of Harvard. Dr. Walker's website is: Docgiff.com
My book, �90 + How I Got There� can be obtained by sending $19.95 to:
Giff Holdings, 525 Balliol St, Unit # 6,Toronto, Ontario, M4S 1E1
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