Let's Talk About Sex Ed

Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby…or Rather, Let’s Talk About Stis and Stds. Sure, Sexual Health Can Be a Taboo Topic, but With Reports Showing That Hundreds of Thousands of Australian Women Are Living With a Sexually Transmitted Infection That Can Lead to Infertility – and They Don’t Even Know About It – It’s Important to Pay the Issue Adequate Lip Service.

- Hilary Simmons

The first thing to know is that STIs and STDs are, essentially, one and the same. STI stands for sexually transmitted infection while STD stands for sexually transmitted disease. In recent years, the term STI has become preferred usage; this is because STIs are often treatable and show no symptoms. Therefore the term ‘infection’ suits them better than ‘disease’. Many medical experts also believe that saying STI instead of STD reduces the stigma associated with the original acronym and helps clarify that not all sexually transmitted infections necessarily turn into a disease. For example, about 90 per cent of women who contract HPV (human papillomavirus) do not go on to develop cervical cancer, and are rid of their infection within two years.

So, STD and STI essentially stand for the same thing, even though they are not, strictly speaking, the same. The distinction is that although all STDs are preceded by STIs, not all STIs result in the development of STDs. At WH&F, we’re all for talking about sexual health in a way that promotes the positive rather than the negative; so for the purposes of this article we will only be referring to STIs.

CRUNCHING THE NUMB3RS

Research reveals numerous reasons for skipped STI tests: women are afraid of judgment, they dislike the invasion of privacy, they don’t feel they ‘need’ to get tested, they are under time pressures or they simply baulk at the cost. The truth is, STIs are associated with a palpable sense of shame and there’s still a taboo when it comes to talking about them. It’s not just talking about them, though – a lot of people don’t even want to think about them. Testing is likely to remain at a disturbing low so long as we allow this fear of negative stigma to maintain control.