|
|
|
STDs Over 40
July 31, 2008 |
Sex can be a taboo topic for anyone. But it’s especially difficult for some
patients to bring up the subject with their physicians.
Dr. Avery Wright is a Family Physician with Lee Memorial Health System.
“Anything to do with sex generally is a bit of an issue for people to talk
about.”
She says now many physicians are seeing more patients who are re-entering the
dating scene and possible re-visiting the concept of casual sex. “You have a lot
of patients who are in their 40’s. They’ve recently divorced, they’re kind of
back in the dating game; it’s been a while since they’ve been out dating
multiple people. They might not realize that all of these social issues have a
huge impact on their health.”
Dr. Wright adds one issue those patients are usually not prepared for is the
transmission of sexual diseases. “You know a lot of people have herpes, a lot of
people have chlamydia, and gonorrhea and these things are things that if
patients do know about them they kind of think I’m too old for that or it’s kind
of inner city stuff it’s in every population.”
If you are sexually active with one or more partners, Dr. Wright says preventing
and protecting against STDs should be a priority, especially if you're an
adult. “Pushing the condom use and usually you’re pushing that for high school
or college kids. In our society it’s more commonplace for people to have casual
sex and so that increases the risk of all of those kinds of things.”
The Center for Disease Control recently reported that STDs
remain a major public health challenge in the United States. Research shows
approximately 19 million Americans a year are diagnosed with a sexually
transmitted infection. |
|
|
|
