Safe Sex and Birth Control
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Effectiveness of Birth Control

Method	Effectiveness	Side Effects
Abstinence	100%	None
Withdrawal Method	20-40%	None
Spermicide	64-96%	Irritation, and can cause birth defects
Condom or Diaphragm	64-97%	Irritation
The Pill (causes early abortions)	98-99%	Death, strokes, heart attacks, stunts height, mental depression, cancer, increased blood pressure, headaches, dizziness, excessive bleeding, rashes, blood clots, sterility, birth defects, loss of interest in sex
IUD (cause early abortions)	94-99%	PID, Infection, Perforation of uterus and intestines, sterility, hemorrhage, cramps, pain, ectopic pregnancy, can become embedded in the uterus or lost, death
Sympto Thermal (NFP)	98-99%	None
Vasectomy or Tubal Ligation	99.99%	Infections, fever, pain, possibly non-reversible

Source: Facts from the Physicians Desk Reference and the Indiana State Board of Health

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Reasons To Wait

Wait for sex until marriage!! Are you crazy?

No…just the opposite. Having multiple sexual relationships, whether one at a time or all at once, is a game of genital Russian roulette. No one expects to lose, but too many do. Consider the following:

Thirty years ago the average boring high school health education class discussed only two sexually transmitted diseases (or STD’s): syphilis and gonorrhea. These were described as potentially hazardous but nothing a little penicillin couldn’t vanquish if treated in time.

The sexual playground of the 1960s and 1970s has now become a jungle teeming with exotic, dangerous and often incurable infections.

GONORRHEA has become leaner, meaner and widely resistant to penicillin. It can create pelvic infections in women, both low grade or red hot, causing damage ranging from scarred tubes to complete destruction of the reproductive organs.

SYPHILIS, while still responsive to penicillin, continues to spread among sexually active adolescents and adults. Left untreated, it can lead to serious damage of the brain or heart, among other organs, or even death.

CHLAMYDIA infects or reinfects an estimated 3 million people every year without causing any obvious symptoms. In women, chlamydia can silently damage the fallopian tubes, leading to the heartbreaking problem of infertility. Damaged fallopian tubes can also cause an ectopic pregnancy (one occurring outside the uterus), a dangerous condition requiring emergency surgery.

Then there’s another contingent of STDs – those caused by viruses – that have a disturbing habit: Once on board they never get off. In fact, they may even sink the ship.

HERPES SIMPLEX has infected one in five people over the age of 12 nationwide. Its blisters may be a mild nuisance or a major disruption as they come and go for years. Two out of three newborns who pick up a herpes infection from their mothers at birth will die, and most of the rest will be seriously handicapped.

HUMAN PAPILLOMA VIRUS, or HPV, may be the most common sexually transmitted organism in the United States. It causes soft venereal warts, but more important, HPV is associated with genital cancer in both sexes. Approximately 5,000 women in the United States die every year from cancer of the cervix (the opening of the uterus); it is estimated that more than 90 percent of these cases are directly linked to HPV.

HEPATITIS B, a serious liver infection, can be transmitted sexually. The disease may be self-limited, or it may continue for years, leading to some very unpleasant or even fatal complications, including liver cancer and cirrhosis

HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS (HIV) is carried by more than 900,000 Americans. The progression from an HIV infection to AIDS, and ultimately death, appears inevitable, despite advances in drug therapy. As of 1998, more than 375,000 Americans have died from AIDS, and millions more worldwide.

Want to hear something really scary?

All these diseases, and many others, can be transmitted during sex by people who don’t know they are infected. These people don’t look sick. They feel great and they enjoy sex, but without knowing it they may be lethal weapons.

But I practice safer sex!

(Did you notice no one calls it “safe sex” any more?)

Despite the epidemic of heartaches and horrors from STDs, far too few people today are willing to accept the obvious: these diseases could be eliminated altogether if uninfected people would postpone sex, find and marry one partner, and remain mutually faithful for life.

That’s unrealistic, say those who are talking endlessly about “safer” sex. Having safer sex usually means taking these precautions:

· Limiting the number of partners with whom one has sex. Fewer partners means fewer chances for exposure to disease.

BUT: A lethal disease can be transmitted by a single sexual contact with one infected partner.

· Knowing something about a partner’s sexual history, and presumably avoiding sex with someone who has had many partners.

BUT: How do you know if you’re going to get the whole story of your prospective partner’s sex life, especially if he or she has something to hide? And how are you going to find out what your prospective partner’s partners, or their partners, or their partners’ partners, have been up to? From an infectious disease standpoint, you not only have sex with the person at hand, but with all of his or her sexual contacts, and all of their contacts’ contacts, and so forth.

And how about the job of taking that sexual history in the middle of a hot date?

Scene from a best-seller yet to be written:

She felt his hot breath on her neck as her supple arms twined around his waist, and then he caught a glimpse of shimmering moonlight reflected in her longing gaze. As their passions welled, she pulled out her clipboard and purred, “Say, Harold, could you tell me about your first sex partner? Who was she, and what was she like? And then what happened in college when you were in that fraternity, you know, I Phelta Thi? Oh, and how about graduate school?...”

· Use a condom at all times.

BUT: What if he doesn’t want to wear it? Some men feel that wearing a condom during sex is like taking a bath with their socks on.

What if it breaks? With their 10 to 15 percent failure rate during the first year of use, condoms have never been considered the most effective way to prevent pregnancy, and wherever sperm can go, so can Chlamydia, herpes, HIV, and all the others.

Is “Safer” Sex safe?

You would be wise to consider some bottom line questions before entering a sexual relationship:

1. If you knew that your prospective partner harbored a hazardous or even lethal disease, would you entrust your life and health to a condom?

2. If your partner has HIV, does a one-in-ten chance of exposure to a miserable death sound like reasonable odds?

The reality is that, in the STD jungle, wearing a condom is certainly safer than not wearing one, but only, the Centers for Disease Control says, if the condom is used consistently, which means using a fresh condom – not an old one from a glove compartment – and applying it properly, not in haste, every time. If not used this way, condoms work no better than if not used at all.

Still not convinced? Then remember how babies get started…

Despite the widespread availability of condoms, spermicides and contraceptive pills, birth control precautions aren’t always taken in the heat of passion, and they don’t always work when they are.

More than 50% of America’s 3 million unintended pregnancies every year begin in spite of some form of birth control.

And when a woman becomes pregnant she is never the same. Pregnancy cannot be ignored, and whatever is done about it will have a permanent effect on her life. Only two outcomes are possible:

1. The baby will be born, or

2. The baby will die before birth, whether through deliberate or spontaneous abortion.

Neither outcome is easy to deal with. There are no quick fixes where human life is concerned. If a woman bears and raises her child, her time and attention will necessarily be diverted for years. If she bears and gives up her child for adoption – an act of considerable courage – she will not escape physical and emotional pain. The child is gone, but not forgotten.

Because many women find these options highly uncomfortable, they may seek an abortion, which may appear to be an easier solution. Unfortunately, many later come to realize that what was destroyed looked a lot more like a tiny human than a shapeless wad of tissue. And since at least one out of four women seeking an abortion does not actually believe it is morally right, thousands ultimately live with severe, longterm regrets, especially if the procedure itself, or a subsequent infection, leaves her unable to have children later in life.

Which brings us to an important warning for women:

(Men read at your own risk.)

In the sexual revolution, women have been (and still are) the big losers.

1. When an unwanted pregnancy occurs, the woman is usually left holding the bag, and she virtually always pays a far bigger price than her partner.

2. STDs tend to have more severe consequences in women than in men.

3. When women accept the Playboy philosophy of sex as recreation, they trade a number of sexual encounters for . . . nothing. No ongoing relationships, no commitment, no security, no family and possibly no children, if they acquire a pelvic infection from a partner.

Therefore, when your date/boyfriend/fiancé begins murmuring famous lines such as, “If you really loved me, you’d sleep with me,” or “If you don’t, I’ll find someone who will,” guess whose interest he has at heart. If you said yours, guess again.

It’s time to wise up.

This all sounds really puritanical. Do you have something against sex?

No way. On the contrary:

1. What really devalues sex is the idea that intercourse is no more meaningful than a good meal or a drive in a fast car.

2. What stifles sexual satisfaction is casual copulating with little or no emotional involvement. Songwriter Michael Johnson said it well more than a decade ago: Bodies on bodies, like sacks upon shelves/People just using each other to make love to themselves…

3. What people miss in non-marital sex is the opportunity for enjoyment far greater than the immediate sensual experience.

Sex can and should generate a powerful bond, a relational Super Glue between two people. In the setting of a permanent and public commitment, it can be savored, explored and nurtured without guilt, without fear of consequences, without bartering, negotiating, and haggling.

But how can I resist the pressure? Everyone I know is having sex!

Contrary to popular belief, there are plenty of single adults who are holding off on sex until the time is right. Intercourse is not like breathing – you can survive without it. But since the going can get tough, keep the following in mind:

1. Decide - before the conversation, before the date, before the relationship gets serious - that sex begins on the wedding night and not before.

2. Keep your reasons clearly in mind. You’re waiting because you want to enjoy sex fully, without risking serious disease, unplanned pregnancy and distorted relationships.

3. Keep your most significant sexual organ – your brain – free of sleaze. Sexually oriented films and videos and explicit lyrics in rock and rap have not been created with your health and welfare in mind. Pornography, along with being incredibly stupid, pushes barnyard sex, rape and abuse.

4. Avoid situations that increase the risk of an accident. Remember that sexual feelings gain momentum, much like a car rolling down an ever-steepening hill. It’s a lot easier to put on the brakes in the coffee shop than on the couch.

5. Alcohol and drugs cloud judgment and weaken resolve. Stay sober.

6. Don’t be a sucker for sexual come-ons and con games. Have in mind some responses for the tired lines that continue to make the rounds:

“Sex will bring us closer.”

(No, it won’t.)

“Sex will enhance our relationship.”

(No, sex will become the center of attention and choke out everything else.)

“If you really loved me, you’d do it.”

(If you really loved me, you wouldn’t ask.)

“Just this once…”

(No one wants sex just once.)

“I want to give you something to remember me by.”

(Such as herpes, HIV, or a pregnancy?)

“If you don’t, I’ll find someone who will.”

(I hope the two of you have a nice life.)

What if it’s too late?

It’s never too late. Many people, sadder but wiser, are now waiting for the safety and pleasure of a marital relationship. To rephrase a cliché, today is the first day of the rest of your sex life.

Source: “Sex And Singles: Reasons to Wait”, Focus on the Family, 1994.

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STDs

CHLAMYDIA:

What is Chlamydia?

Chlamydia is an infection caused by the most commonly transmitted microorganism in the United States. Contracted only by intercourse, its primary source of infection is a woman’s uterus, tubes, and ovaries. This can cause sterility and / or abdominal pain. A woman can receive the infectious organism from a man during intercourse and carry it in her reproductive organs for months and not know it. When the organism starts multiplying in her uterus, tubes, and ovaries, it causes an infection of the pelvic structures called PID (pelvic inflammatory disease). If a woman’s reproductive organisms have been infected by chlamydia even one time, she has a 25 percent chance of becoming sterile. If she becomes infected a second time, she has a 50 percent chance of sterility. After four such infections, a woman has almost a 100 percent chance of being sterile for the rest of her life unless she has surgery for her infertility problems or has in vitro fertilization, and these are not always successful.

Unfortunately, the misery does not end there. Women whose tubes have only partial scarring may conceive but have a tubal pregnancy. If you have this type of scarring, you have a six times greater chance of having a tubal pregnancy than a woman who has not had a Chlamydia (or gonorrhea) infection of her fallopian tubes. Tubal (ectopic) pregnancies can be dangerous. They are the leading cause of death in pregnant women. A tubal pregnancy is a pregnancy that grows in a fallopian tube instead of the uterus. After only three or four weeks the tube is too small to hold the pregnancy and often ruptures, causing hemorrhage inside a woman’s abdomen.

It is estimated that over four million people in the United States develop a new Chlamydia infection each year. This number may mean more to you if it is broken down into age groups. It is estimated that 8 to 25 percent of all college students are infected with Chlamydia. Adolescents have two to three times more Chlamydia than adults. The sad conclusion is that it is mainly young people – who have not yet had children – who are unwittingly causing themselves to become sterile.

Implications

Listed below are the important facts to remember about Chlamydia:

1. Chlamydia is often a silent infection, and up to 80 percent of people who have it are not aware of it.

2. Chlamydia is an extremely common sexually transmitted infection. In some groups of young men and women, as many as 20 to 40 percent are infected.

3. It is a devastating infection for a woman. There is evidence that it can cause miscarriages or premature births. It is a major cause of tubal pregnancies, which are medically dangerous and emotionally painful. The most devastating thing about Chlamydia for a woman is that it can develop into PID, which may cause sterility that can lead to years of expense and heartache.

4. If a pregnant woman has Chlamydia at the time of delivery, her baby may develop an eye infection, pneumonia, and/or a middle ear infection.

5. A woman who has Chlamydia will often have another sexually transmitted disease. It is important that she be tested for other STDs as soon as the Chlamydia is diagnosed.

6. Although men can develop epididymitis or sterility from Chlamydia, this is not very common. This disease primarily ravages women.

Source: Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., M.D. Safe Sex: A Doctor Explains the Realities of AIDS & Other STDs, pp. 102-103, 108-109. Used by permission of Baker Books, a division of Baker Book House Company, copyright © 1990, 1991. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirrored at other sites without written permission from Baker Book House Company.

HERPES:

What is Herpes?

Herpes is caused by a virus that produces blisters and sores in and on the sex organs. In men, the blisters may appear on the penis, the scrotum, or the anus; in women, the sores may be on the vulva, inside the vagina, on the cervix, or in the anal region. In both men and women, the outbreaks may also occur on the skin, anywhere on the body.

The infective virus, herpes simplex type II, is spread by direct contact with someone who carries it. This contact may be sexual intercourse, but the virus can be spread by mouth, so herpes sores on the lips may result from kissing or from oral-genital contact with an infected individual.

The herpes virus does not remain in the area where initial contact is made. It invades the body and finally lodges in groups of nerve cells (ganglia) located near the spinal cord. When it is causing its typical sores, the virus spreads through the nerves to the genitals or the skin. For this reason, merely treating the area of the sores will not prevent a future herpes outbreak.

Implications

Herpes is a sexually transmitted disease that is almost always contracted through intercourse or other intimate physical contact. The only way it can be caught from a toilet seat is by coming in direct contact with infectious secretions that have very recently been left on the seat by someone else. You also do not need to worry about catching this disease by shaking hands or hugging or similar contact with others. Herpes can be contracted by kissing.

Herpes is very prevalent as studies already cited have shown. Remember that 75 percent of herpes-infected individuals have never had an outbreak of herpes (and therefore may be unaware of its existence) but can pass it on nevertheless.

Dr. Andre Nahmias, of Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (April 4, 1986) a study suggesting that 20 to 60 percent our our population has genital herpes, and that the average male adult in the United States has almost a 50 percent chance of having already been infected with the virus.

The bad news about herpes is that it can be painful, embarrassing, terribly annoying, and expensive – and places an unborn baby at risk if the mother is infected. Somewhat better news is that it is not a dangerous disease, except to a very few people. In fact, after four or five years, some people may actually stop having recurrences of herpes outbreaks.

Source: Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., M.D. Safe Sex: A Doctor Explains the Realities of AIDS & Other STDs, pp. 112, 118. Used by permission of Baker Books, a division of Baker Book House Company, copyright © 1990, 1991. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirrored at other sites without written permission from Baker Book House Company.

GONORRHEA:

What is Gonorrhea?

Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the gonococcus (Neisseria gonorrhoeae), a pus-producing bacterium that is almost never transmitted any other way than by intercourse. Although gonorrhea is often thought to be a disease of the past, the threat from gonorrhea is still very real and is growing. Gonorrhea is highly communicable – even a one-time sexual act with an infected partner brings a 40 percent chance of contracting this disease.

The incidence of gonorrhea is increasing dramatically in the United States. Drs. Gardner and Kaufman state that the number of gonorrhea cases in the United States has been steadily rising since 1958 and has nearly doubled since 1965. Their book was published in 1981, and since then the number of people with gonorrhea has risen even more dramatically.

One of the main problems with gonorrhea, as well as certain other STDs, is that it can be present and produce absolutely no noticeable symptoms. This fact alone makes gonorrhea, along with Chlamydia, dangerous.

Implications

Although gonorrhea has been around so long that it is sometimes laughingly considered a relic of the past, it is no joke to those who become infected by it. Here are some of the facts concerning this dreadful disease:

1. For women, gonorrhea can cause abscesses of the vulva and Bartholin’s gland cysts. The possible long-term effects of a gonorrhea infection include sterility, tubal pregnancies, cystic ovaries, chronic pelvic pain, and need for a hysterectomy. Gonorrhea can also cause blindness in babies who are untreated after delivery.

2. Men who are untreated for gonorrhea may develop scarring of the urethra, which can cause difficult urinary-tract problems.

3. Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea strains are becoming increasingly common in the United States. While this does not mean that gonorrhea cannot be treated, treatment can now cost ten times as much as it would if the germ were responsive to penicillin. It also means that major damage can be done to the female organs by the time a physician realizes that the germ is a resistant strain.

4. If a woman uses an IUD (intrauterine device to prevent conception), she is from two to four times more likely to develop PID if she becomes infected with gonorrhea.

5. While antibiotics can kill the gonorrhea organisms, they cannot erase the scars that may have already resulted from the infection. Complications may remain. If the gonorrhea has produced scarring, adhesions, or blocked fallopian tubes, the condition will remain long after the gonococci have been eradicated – and may have permanent effects on a woman’s health and / or fertility.

Source: Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., M.D. Safe Sex: A Doctor Explains the Realities of AIDS & Other STDs, pp. 119-120, 124-125. Used by permission of Baker Books, a division of Baker Book House Company, copyright © 1990, 1991. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirrored at other sites without written permission from Baker Book House Company.

SYPHILIS:

What is Syphilis?

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease that results from infection with the syphilis organism, Treponema pallidum. This is a spirochete, so named because of its somewhat corkscrew-shaped appearance. The syphilis organism dies quickly if it is not in a warm, moist environment. It can be transmitted only from one moist area to another and it is almost entirely a sexually transmitted disease.

In their previously cited book, Benign Diseases of the Vulva and Vagina, Drs. Herman L. Gardner and Raymond Kaufman write:

Syphilis is a continuous infectious process that is initiated at the time of contact. It passes through well-known clinical stages: incubation, primary, secondary, latent, and late (tertiary). Transmission of syphilis involves intimacy, and in the vast majority of cases, it is attributable to sexual contact.

Many recorded examples have occurred from kissing. Spirochetes (the syphilis organism) readily invade intact, moist mucus membranes. Invasion through dry, unbroken skin is unlikely.

According to estimates, approximately half of the patients with syphilis are either unaware of its presence, or consider the lesions inconsequential until the disease is past its early stages.

Although the patient is actually infected from the moment of inoculation (the time of intercourse from which he or she gets the infections), the primary lesions (chancres) usually do not appear for ten to ninety days, the average being three weeks. Serologic (blood) tests do not become positive for an additional week or longer.

Implications

There are many facts about syphilis that are important enough to keep in mind:

1. The incidence of syphilis has recently surged dramatically; for the past few years it has been occurring at the highest rate since 1950. In 1987, syphilis increased 25 percent, and it increased another 25 percent in 1988. Public health officials are alarmed.

2. Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease passed by intimate sexual contact, including intercourse, kissing, and oral / genital contact.

3. A man in the latent stage of syphilis is not as likely to transmit the disease to a sexual partner as in the primary and secondary stages. A woman, however, can transmit syphilis during the menstrual period, even in the latent phase. (Menstrual flow contains the spirochete germ, even in the latent stage).

4. Approximately 42 percent of people who have intercourse one time with a person who has syphilis do not become infected. This means, however, that over 50 percent do (British Journal of Venereal Disease, 1983).

5. Even extremely competent doctors can miss the diagnosis of syphilis because it is often difficult to identify initially, even when laboratory techniques are used.

6. It is not against the law to have syphilis. Your doctor will not report it to the police but will make a confidential report to your local public health department. This allows them to trace this silent killer and identify people who are infected and don’t know it.

7. Syphilis affects women more adversely than it does men. In the last three years of the 1980s, the national incidence of syphilis increased 30 percent, but the increase among women was 60 to 75 percent.

Source: Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., M.D. Safe Sex: A Doctor Explains the Realities of AIDS & Other STDs, pp. 128, 133-134. Used by permission of Baker Books, a division of Baker Book House Company, copyright © 1990, 1991. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirrored at other sites without written permission from Baker Book House Company.

HPV (GENITAL WARTS):

What is HPV Infection?

The virus group causing venereal warts is essentially passed only by sexual intercourse and is therefore a true sexually transmitted disease.

Infection by an HPV can cause growths of soft warts on the genitals. In men, the warts can develop on the penis, on the scrotum, or sometimes (due to anal intercourse) in or around the anus. They can also occur in the groin area. These warts are very contagious. Roughly 85 percent of women whose regular sex partners have these warts will develop similar growths within eight months. In women, the warts may appear in the groin, on the vulva, or (with or withou