Dena Stevens: Hi my name's Dena Stevens and I am the college
nurse here at Moorpark, and today we're going to
talk about sexually transmitted infections, the who,
what, when, where, why, and how of STIs and
college students. Let's get started. So there's
some graphic pictures in this presentation. So if
you feel like you just can't look at them, or you're
grossed out or it's embarrassing, feel free to
turn away, put a something over your screen...Do
whatever you got to do. The good part is as most
of us are home in the privacy of our space and we
don't have to watch this with a bunch of other
people which sometimes can be a little awkward. So
I tell some stories in this and I've been a
nurse a long time and seen a lot of patients. So
sometimes it helps to share some of those stories
just to drive home some points. It's not intended
to offend anyone. None of the individuals I talk
about are students here. So just know
that I'm not here to hurt anybody's feelings or
make anybody feel bad. So let's talk about the who.
Basically anybody could get an STD that's having
any type of sexual relationships. It doesn't have
to be just specifically intercourse. Some STDs
can be transmitted even when there's only skin to
skin contact. And we're going to talk about that.
We know that abstinence is the safest bet but not
always the most fun. So if we're going to choose
to have sex we want to make sure we have the
safest sex we can. So what do you need to know?
Anybody can get an STI, right? We already talked
about that. But how are they spread? Primarily
spread through anal, vaginal, and oral sex. But some,
like I said, are spread by skin to skin contact.
There're two different types of STIs and one
is a viral and the other is a bacterial. Bacterial
one's sort of like better simply because
antibiotics will cure a bacterial infection, where
viruses? Not so much. Viruses don't respond to
antibiotics much like Covid doesn't respond to
antibiotics. So you have to try different
treatments to see what you can do to help people
out. Most of the time with viruses it's not a cure.
It's more about maintaining the symptoms or
containing the symptoms until the virus itself
passes. STIs affect men and women pretty
equally. Oh let me go back for a second. When
we're talking about viruses and bacteria, the
one thing to know when you're trying to tell the
difference is that if it starts with the letter "H"
it's a virus. So the four ones that we think of
most commonly are herpes, hepatitis, HPV, and HIV. So
just how you might delineate between what's
virus-caused and what's bacteria-caused. OK back to
men and women. They're generally equally
distributed. Men and women tend to have the same
amount of STIs, some a little different depending
on the specific STI, but generally overall they're
pretty equally distributed. However the impact on
women is different. And that's primarily because
in guys they're junk's on the outside. Right. They
kind of see it. They kinda have to handle it in
order to kinda get through their day. Women not
so much. We don't generally walk around with our head
between our legs looking to see if there's
something going on up there. And when it's inside
of our body we may not feel it the same way. So
it's important to know that the impact on women
can be significant and they might not even know it.
The other important fact is that women carry
babies. So when our reproductive track is damaged
it can really impact our ability to reproduce.
So lots of different types of STDs. STD
stands for "sexually transmitted disease." STI
stands for "sexually transmitted infection." They're
kind of interchangeable. I've been doing this a
long time, and when I started it was STD, so
sometimes you'll hear me use that word. But
there's three main ones we're going to talk about
mostly because you don't want to sit here all day,
and neither do I. So the main ones we're going to
talk about are the most common ones here at Moorpark
College, and those are chlamydia. HPV, or genital
warts, and herpes. Those are the things we see most
commonly in our office and our most commonly seen
in college students across the country. These
however do not mean they're the only ones we see.
We do see other things. We do see cases of
gonorrhea. We do see syphilis. And we have seen
HIV in our office. However those are just not the
most common ones. And for time's sake we're just going
to talk about the most common ones.
When are you most at risk of getting an STD? I
don't think most people think about there being a
timeframe of when I'm most at risk other than when
I don't use a condom or when I don't practice
safer sex. But the reality is there is a safer
time to get set to get an STD versus others. So
one of the greatest things to remember is that 20
million people in the United States have an
STI at some point. Ten million of that 20
million, so half of that, occur in people between
the ages of 15 to 24. Then, when you take that
10 million 15 to 24, you have to remember
that only 25 percent of people that fall between
the age group of 15 to 24 are even
sexually active. So when you kind of pull this all
apart you can tell a lot of burden, a lot of
these STIs fall on a very small population. So
people between the ages of 15 to 24 are much more
likely to be diagnosed with an STI than people in
other age groups. Young women, in reality have the
highest numbers of STIs, and especially at
sexual debut. And that means that their first
sexual intercourse is the highest risk period of
time for coming down with an STI especially when
they're so young. Fifteen-year-olds are much more
likely. Those cells are virginal as well as
the body. So they're not used to being exposed to
those different germs and viruses and bacterias.
So they tend to not have the strength and power to
fight off infections. So something to be really
aware of when we're looking at sexually
transmitted infections.
When and where. So you know kind of always think
maybe not so much this year but spring break you
know people are out doing things maybe having
experiences we wouldn't normally have. But I love
this cartoon. So you can see the crab's like "Yeah,
spring break." And then, "It's going to be a busy
week guys." And he has a herpes hat on. And then
the last guy says "Hi, my name's Gonorrhea." and he's
just hanging out kind of telling him. So just
knowing that sometimes those really good times can
be high risk periods of time for sexually
transmitted infections. So I thought I'd show you
some pictures of what these look like and in
different areas of the body just so that you can
recognize that just because you have an STI
doesn't necessarily mean it's only in the
reproductive tract. So HPV we can see in the upper
left hand corner is in the mouth. And actually
that's a really common spot for it. And we'll talk
a little more about it. You see it in the upper
right hand corner. It's actually kind of around
the vagina and even towards the anus. Herpes, up on
the face. And then chlamydia is actually shown as a
discharge coming from the penis. So why are they
spreading so much. Well the first thing to
actually remember is that most people don't
maliciously go around spreading STIs, but we do
tend to do things that maybe put us at higher risk,
and we don't really think about those as why
they're spreading so much, especially in terms
of condom use. We'll hear this: "Don't you trust me?"
There're some great responses to this,
like "Well, if you have to ask me that maybe
now I don't trust you so much." I'll let you
guys read these. You can go at your own pace on
this one so you can go back and look at this. If I
had a dollar for the one that says it doesn't fit
me I'm too big, I seriously would be somewhere in
the Bahamas with a very nice drink with an
umbrella in it and would not be sitting in my
office doing this presentation for you. So, you can
kind of read about it. But there are different
sized condoms for different sized men. Making sure
you have the right size is important but most men
fit in a regular sized condom. If you are bored,
and need something to do, because I know you can't
go out and do anything else, you can always
YouTube "condom size" and they'll show you all these
great things like you can put a whole your whole
arm into a condom, all the way from your elbow
into your to your hand. You can fill it up with
all this water. So anyway just letting you know, I've
heard that one a lot. So lots of
different reasons that that people don't use
condoms, and why STIs continue to spread. So
first of all we're going to talk about chlamydia.
Chlamydia is a really, really common STI, and
probably the most common one we see here at
Moorpark College. I've left you some statistics.
There's more than a million. I mean actually the
scary part is I think the statistics for chlamydia
sort-of look like the statistics from Covid
currently. Just really scary. But this is what's
reported. So we actually believe that a large
number of these, people aren't even aware they have.
So they don't get reported. They don't get
diagnosed. And they certainly don't get treated
and they're much more likely to spread. So anyway
you know that this is a really common STI. It is
very common in 15 to 24 year olds. It kind of
showed you that picture. Sixty almost sixty two
percent of these show up in men and women between
15 and 24, so a huge population. AfricanAmericans,
American Indian, Alaska Native, and Pacific
Islanders by race have a higher risk factor. And
they don't really know why that is. But that's the
common trend. Multiracial Asians and native
Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders have the highest
rates by ethnicity. Again not necessarily like a
specific cause. Always looking at
medical inequality, the inability to get
to proper medical care, or afford the proper
medical care, plays a role in it. But it's kind
of an interesting trend that these aren't
necessarily the statistics that are always in that.
Just letting you know what the chlamydia
group make-up is. So how is it
transmitted? It's very easily transmitted. It
comes from dating--you're just hanging,
having sex with somebody that you're
dating. You've got some crazy hookup going on.
Friends with benefits. But in this one you have to
have some type of bodily fluid exchange. This is
not a skin-to-skin contact disease. So there has
to be an exchange of vaginal fluids, semen, saliva.
in order for someone to become
infected. So what are the symptoms. They're really
pretty much the same for men and women in terms of
overall, but it's fascinating that men have one
that they complained about more than women and
vice versa. Pain with urination is common in
both men and women, however, when we hear pain with
urination in a male, we tend much more to think of
of chlamydia than we would
necessarily in a female. In females, lots of things
can cause pain with urination just because of the
way our anatomy is put together. But when I hear
it in guys I usually start to think "I wonder if
they have chlamydia. Discharge can be seen in
both male and females. However it's not the most
common symptom we see. Bleeding after sex is the
complaint most women come in with. They say "You know,
I'm not having any pain but every time I have sex
I have this weird bleeding and I'm not getting my
period." So then we start to think maybe there's an
STI going on. Pelvic pain which is also known as
PID or pelvic inflammatory disease is a result of
when chlamydia or any STI has been left untreated
for too long. It means that the bacteria, because
this is a bacterial virus that doesn't start with
an H. Your bacterial STI, excuse me, doesn't start
with an H. It means the bacteria kind-of climbed its way
up into the other parts of the reproductive tract
like the uterus or fallopian tubes. And this can
cause an enormous amount of pain, infections, scarring...
We can see infertility in this. Testicular pain is
also known as epididymitis. In guys this is
what happens when it's left untreated for too long.
It tends to get all into all the
vessels and wiring so to speak in the testicle,
and it causes pain and swelling. So both pelvic
inflammatory disease, or PID, and epididymitis, or
testicular pain like that require high-level
care. Sometimes they even require hospitalization
because they need I.V. antibiotics rather than
just plain oral antibiotics. It can be really
painful, so we also want to make sure that people
get pain control. The reality is, however even
though those symptoms are possible, up to 70%
of men and 90% of women won't have a
single symptom. So you can see how easily it would be
to be to spread. It's like if you don't have a sore
throat, you don't tend to go to the doctor and say
I think I have strep. So if you don't have
a symptom why would you go and get tested. Because
now you know that depending on your sex that 70%
of men and 90% of women may have no
signs and symptoms at all. So it's important to
get tested if you're sexually active at least once
a year. Testing and treatment: Generally ,in our
office, we do a urine test. All you have to do is
pee in a cup and we can send that up for testing. It
works really great, and not too embarrassing.
Nobody has to go with you or see anything.
Occasionally, if we think it's in a different part
of the body, because you can get chlamydia in other parts
of the body like the eyes, or in the anal tracts,
different spots, we will do what they call
a culture, which is like taking a little Q-tip and
getting some of the cells and maybe some of the
bacteria off the walls of the environment and
sending those to the lab. And the third way is on
a PAP smear. Guys you don't get a pap smear--at
least not yet. So it can be done when a woman goes
for her annual exam. It can be done simultaneously,
but generally in our office we do it
through a urine test. If somebody were to come
back positive we want everybody to get antibiotics.
Obviously the patient that we're taking care of
needs antibiotics. And any partner that they've
had contact with within three
months should be treated with antibiotics. So
pelvic inflammatory disease and epididymitis can
require hospitalization. We talked about
that. And newborns, just by nature, when a baby
is born a few minutes after birth, they put a
little bit of eye drops in the baby's eyes and
that's in case mom had chlamydia during birth and
no one knew it. So that prevents chlamydia in the
eyes of the newborn and prevents blindness. So
it's a common practice.
Chlamydia was the easy one, because we
know that it can be treated with antibiotics and
it goes away but then we're back into those
viruses. Remember we talked about viruses start
with the letter H? So let's start with our first
one, and one of our most common ones which is HPV
or human papilloma virus, also known as genital
warts. Very, very, very common, not only the United
States, but the world in general. Seventy-nine
million Americans, mostly in their late teens and
early 20s are infected with HPV at least at some
point in their life. There're 40 different
strains. There're actually a lot more than 40 but
there're 40 that we really identify with, and we
kind of know what their process is--what those strains
do. 14 out of those 40 are cancer-causing. So what
does that mean? It means that when somebody gets
cancer specifically, an oral cancer, or an anal
cancer, penile cancer, cervical cancer...that a lot of
times we know that it's generally caused by HPV.
However it doesn't work both ways. Just because
they find that cancer strain in your body doesn't
mean it will cause cancer. A lot of people are
able to shed this virus and do just fine with it.
Otherwise a lot of us obviously 79 million
Americans have it. We'd have a lot more cancer
than we do, which thankfully we don't. So while we
know that cancer can be a result of HPV it's not
always. The great part is that 90% of HPV,
90% of those people that are diagnosed
with it, will clear the body of it within two years without
any medical intervention, which is a lot of the reason [why]
testing and things like that aren't even done
until somebody turns 21, because we know that
the body especially, as a young person, does a
really great job of taking care of this virus all
by itself. However, that does not mean that you
can't get it again. And we're going talk about the
vaccine in just a second.
You can actually see oral HPV in the picture on
the right and they have it in the very back of
their throat, and that's generally caused by,
you can guess, oral sex. That's the transmission
mode. It can be skin to skin contact, but
obviously, if it's way deep inside, you're
not going to have skin to skin contact, so it's
transmitted with with sexual intercourse. So
there's actually two types of HPV. The first one
is what they call a low risk type. And it's kind
of the type we say we see on the external parts of
bodies. So generally we see these on the external
part of the penis, testicles ,on the outside of the
anus, on the lips of the vagina. The high risk
kinds, which are highly contagious, are generally
found on the internal parts of our body. So the
internal parts of our cervix, internal part of our
penis, anus, and then it can be the oral orifices.
And you can see obviously in this one, in the back of the
throat. What are the symptoms? Generally the
external kind, the kind that don't cause a whole
lot of problems just look like warts. If you've
ever seen a wart before, like when you were
in elementary school, and you ran around going "Oh they
have a wart! They have a wart!" They're kind of bumpy.
They're usually on the smaller side. They're flesh
colored. They don't really hurt--not painful. They
just kind of sit there. And a lot of times they
just come and go at their own their own pace.
Obviously the ones at the top my pictures are
a little more graphic, and clearly, again, to drive
home the point. You can see that these can
actually clear themselves and go away but they can
also do the reverse which is get huge and get in
the way of being able to go to the bathroom or
swallow or have sex. Lots of things that they can
give away if they're left untreated. In terms
of testing, the only testing available is actually
a pap smear which of course we don't do on men,
remember? However they are starting to do some pap
smears on men in the anus, especially for gay men
at high risk. But at this point that's not a
standard. We primarily do pap smears on women. And
not until the age of 21. So the other thing we can
do is that if somebody comes in and they say "I
have these really weird bumps. I've had them for a
month or so. They don't really hurt. They're kind
of ugly. I just want them to go away," we can diagnose it
just by visualization. But sometimes, guys will
come in and they'll be like "Hi. You know I have
this new partner and I really want to be like safe,
and sure that I got all my testing, and I want to make
sure I get HPV testing." And I have to say "Sorry,
guys, there's no HPV testing yet." I'm sure it's on
the horizon but we're not quite there yet. So how
do we treat these things. The external ones we
freeze them with a very cold liquid nitrogen. This
is Moorpark College, and not USC, so we don't have
laser removal here. The only laser
removal I have is my pointer to go on
the board. So we have no lasers here but that is a
possibility. And sometimes we will use them like a
chemical to help kind of burn them off. Obviously
if they're internal and cancer causing then that's
a cancer treatment in and of itself, and obviously
we don't treat those here at Moorpark. A vaccine came out in
2006, and currently the recommendation is in women
the ages of 11t-26, and men,
11-26. The CDC in 2018 did approve
this vaccine for ages27-45,
depending on your risk factors. The vaccine, when
it came out was really only tested on individuals
between 11-26, so that's what the
FDA approved, but they're recognizing that people
that are older still have multiple sexual partners
and they're still at risk for this and could
benefit from this vaccine, so they just started
opening that up. If you don't think you've gotten
this vaccine I highly recommend you go get it and
you want to do it before you turn 26 because your
insurance will pay for it if you have medical insurance.
It's a covered requirement under the Affordable
Care Act. And otherwise if you have to pay cash
for it it runs, at least the last time I checked,
about $175 per
injection, and it is three injections. So I can
think of a way better ways to spend that kind of money.
If you are under the age of 26, go get that now
while you still can get it for free. We know that
the vaccine has decreased the incidence of HPV by
50 percent in the last 10 years, which when you
reduce that, you're not just reducing the external
types, but we're also reducing cancer. So this is
actually marketed as one of the first cancer
reducing vaccines or cancer prevention vaccines on
the market, which is a huge breakthrough. So we
know that the more we get people vaccinated and
the less this virus has a chance to circulate the
greater the chance we have to eradicate specific
cancers, specifically cervical cancer, in
relationship to HPV which is huge, a huge amazing
thing.
We're on the next one. We talked about chlamydia, talked
about we talked about HPV and
now we're onto herpes. Remember, it's an H. Virus.
It's not one we cure but it is one we can manage
and treat. So herpes actually is a very large
family. I don't know whether they came from Italy
or where they came from. Just kidding. But they
just tend to have a lot of cousins and brothers
and sisters. So when people say I have herpes they
can mean a lot of different things.
These are all different types of herpes.
And some of them are the same. And some of them
are a little different. So let's talk about which
ones are which. So when we're talking about herpes
Type 1, we generally are talking about cold sores.
So you can see that the lower right hand corner is
a young person with some type of little sore on
their lip. And this is generally referred to as
cold sores or Herpes Type 1. It is caused by
a herpes virus but not all the herpes viruses are
the same. It's estimated that about 80 percent of
the population actually carries the virus for
Herpes Type 1 in their system. But not everybody
shows the symptoms. Some people show it more than
others. And it really just depends on immune
system and genetics and things like that. Herpes
Type 2. You can actually see in the upper left
hand corner and that we tend to think of as
genital herpes. We tend to see it more
in the genital region, in the anal region.
And it's it's more the one that I think people
think of as an STI, even though Herpes Type 1
can be sexually transmitted. So if you think of
the number "69" you can see how
Herpes Type 1 and Herpes Type 2 can be
transmitted to different places. They are
interchangeable. However one of the interesting
things is that Herpes Type 1, or cold sores,
doesn't really like to live in the genital region
and Herpes Type 2, genital herpes, doesn't really
like to live in oral region. We're not really sure
why that is. They will do it. They just don't seem
to have the same strength and recurrence that they
do when they live in their "proper" zone. Varicella is also a
herpes virus. So varicella is chickenpox. So you
can see the little boy up in the right hand corner
scratching his neck. We all
remember those days. I do. That's also caused by
herpes virus. And the older lady down in the in
the lower left hand corner has what they call
shingles which is also herpes virus. It's actually
related closer to chickenpox but it's a
reoccurrence, generally happens in people over the
age of 50. Not always--it can happen in young people--
not sexually transmitted. But just thought I'd
tell you and show you the different variants in
types of herpes.
Shows you which ones are which. What are
the facts about herpes? About 12 percent of people
14 - 49 have a Herpes Type 2. So we're talking
about genital herpes. Twelve percent is a pretty
high percentage, when you think about that. In
oral herpes, the type 1, the cold sores one, is
typically acquired in childhood.
Excuse me in childhood. You're not really sure
why that is. You can get it later on in life, no
question, but we tend to see those infections
starting early on in childhood probably because
kids are much more likely to share glasses and
cups and different things especially with parents
or grandparents who might have already acquired
the virus and have it in their system. We know that
cold sores our highest among Mexican-Americans and
lowest among white people, which seems really funny
to me because I sure see an awful lot of non-
Hispanic white people with type one herpes. But
that's statistically what they're showing. Type
two is highest among Hispanic black and lowest
among non-Hispanic Asian. So you can see it really
does kind of go along ethnic and racial guidelines.
So definitely if you fall in one of those
categories it's really a time you want to make
sure you get tested, make sure you get safe care,
and use those condoms. Prevalence of both Herpes
Type 1 and Herpes Type 2 increase with age.
Even though we know Herpes Type 1 tends to show up in childhood.
How is it transmitted? It's generally transmitted
through, and we're going talk about Herpes Type
2 with this one, because we don't need to get
into all those other ones. But when we're talking
specifically about the STI, Herpes Type 2 is the one
we're talking about, and it's generally spreads
from vaginal, anal, and oral sex. It can be
spread by somebody who's just touching somebody.
You have a herpes infection and somebody with a
wound on their finger touches it. It can be
transmitted that's opening or that wound that does
happen. The thing that's really scary about herpes
is that it can be transmitted without anybody ever
knowing they ever had it. So it means the virus is
what they call "shed" or "given off," even when people
don't have signs and symptoms, which is why we see
such an increased spread of herpes going on, It's
clearly a high risk when somebody has those
symptoms, but we know now that, even without
symptoms, there is that risk. So you are aware of
that and making sure you have good communication
with your partner, and you're using those condoms
is really vital to slow this down. What are the
symptoms? People who have had herpes in the past
will generally tell you they kind of have like
this precursor, They kind-of know they get this
little itching or burning or tingling before the
blisters ever appear. So they may know they're
coming on even before they have an outbreak. The
blisters themselves last about 7-10 days
and then they go away. Whether we treat them or
not they do go away. The blisters do go away but
they are still in the system. We know that the
virus itself remains in the system. And we talked
about shedding without an outbreak. In terms of
testing and treatment, examination is probably one
of the best. A trained eye can really identify, "Wow,
this looks like a herpes lesion.
Let's get some more information. And we can do a
culture where we actually take a little Q-tip, touch
that lesion and send it off to the lab where they
can grow it out and tell us exactly what it is.
There is also a blood test on the market. Not the
most reliable test. We use it occasionally to kind
of confirm diagnosis of something we're not quite
sure of. Or sometimes somebody will come in and
say, "Oh I think I was exposed. I just need to know.
I have to know." We'll run a blood test with the
caveat that it's not the most reliable. It doesn't give us a
whole lot of information because it can
change really quickly. So these lesions tend to be
very painful especially in the first outbreak, so
people are kind of miserable and kind of
uncomfortable. They want something done about
them. We do use oral medication to decrease the
number of outbreaks. Some people have outbreaks
more than once month. Some people have one
outbreak and never have another one in their
lifetime. And we also know that oral medications
can reduce the transmission--that shedding that
goes on even when there're no lesions present.
This isn't curable but we do know that we can
manage it and treat it and people can go on and
live normal and healthy lives.
What about telling your partner? That's a hard thing.
You find out you have an STI, and you feel bad
enough and you go, "This really sucks." But
the reality is that you really do need to let
your partner know because you would want somebody
to let you know. We want them to get tested and
treated to make sure that A, they're not spreading
it any further and to prevent any long term
effects.
Who does a partner include? Anyone you're having
sex with and that includes oral, virginal, anal sex.
And anybody that you might be sharing I.V. drugs
with sharing needles, syringes, or other injectable
equipment. So it's really important that all those
people get tested and get that treatment so that
we don't have long term problems and we can start
to bring those numbers back down.
How do you tell your partner? That's a good
question. Some of us are pretty good
at communicating and are able to call up and say,
"Hey, look at you know what--know we haven't had sex
in the last week, but I want to let you know that
today I tested positive for whatever the STD is.
There's also a couple of e-mail sites, STDs.com
which will send an anonymous e-mail. But
you gotta know their email. tellyourpartner.org
Dontspreadit.com. And there are a
couple of apps that came out. I think it's really
fascinating. I actually I was playing with one and
you'll only get like three months for free and
then you have to pay like five dollars a month for
it. So you're gonna get your STD get it in the
first three months, get it out of your system,
because then you have to pay every time you want
to use your app. Anyway, I thought that was
fascinating. Times have changed. These are great
resources, if you know somebody's email address.
Otherwise,
if somebody was diagnosed with an STD and they
were a victim of assault or rape, some type of
abuse, both the college and Ventura County Public
Health will help in those circumstances. We would
never want somebody who was in a dangerous or
unethical position to have to tell somebody that
that they have an STD, so there are exceptions
to that rule. But in general, we want you guys
to be responsible and do that yourself. So, you've
heard a gazillion times, you know condoms are
the only thing that stop bodily fluids. The
only contraception that reduces both the
transmission of HIV, STIs, and pregnancy. No other
contraception can
make that statement, so it's a really great resource.
We know that latex condoms are the best. And this
is primarily because the pores in the latex condom are
smaller than the pores in things like lambskin or
any type of man-made vinyl, anything like that.
However, if you have an allergy to latex
something's better than nothing, so just keep that
in mind. Polyurethane condoms are generally a
female condom and you can see the picture.
It shows you this is what the packaging
looks like when you take it out for a female
condom, this is what it looks like. That's
like a huge condom, so guys if you're can't
fit in regular condom ask your girl to get a
female condom and that will fit handily. I
don't recommend these in gay sex and anal sex.
That's not what these are designed for. And you
certainly don't want to get this stuck.
The bottom right hand corner is what it looks
like from the vagina, looking at the vagina
(somebody's hand, obviously), but that's what it would
look like. And then you'd have sex. It is an
option. You never want to use this with a male
condom at the same time. But this is a great way
for women to to always have that backup for
themselves and say hey you know what sex. But do
know this is polyurethane. It's not as
protective as a latex condom. But like we said--
this is the safest we can do sometimes. Dental
dams are generally a small square of latex or
vinyl or
even saran wrap that are laid over the vagina or
the anus to give oral sex or rimming. It's just a
barrier method. It's kind of like a condom but
it's flat. So you can see how it's nice and easily
just the piece of plastic. You can cut a condom
and make a piece. You can use Saran Wrap. Dollar
Store Saran Wrap: 600 yards for
a buck that will last you a while. And if you
want it for Halloween they're special colors to
match your outfit or whatever. Just don't get
the the microwave type because the pores are
different in a microwave type and can actually
increase the risk of STIs. Lots of options
there. In the student health center we do run
a program called Family Pact. It is a State
program related to family planning. If you qualify,
and it is financial-based, you can get SDI
testing, birth control, condoms, STI treatment,
PAPs, and anything related to family planning
medical needs, all taken care of at no cost. If
you have questions about that you can certainly
call the student health center at
(805) 378-1413, and we're happy to
discuss how that program works for you and how it
might benefit you. It's a great
program and really helps out our students. Just some little
reminders here: Spooning leads to forking, so use
common sense. Condoms are not 100 percent safe: my
friend was wearing one and he got hit by a bus.
Hate when that happens. What a bummer. Just
think about that when you're thinking about
catching the bus. We do have condoms in the
student health center which doesn't do a whole lot
of good right now because the student health
center is only available through telehealth, but
we are there. And when when we get back on campus
you're welcome to come on up and get condoms from
us at any time. Please let us know if there's
something we can do to help you get tested. We do
do testing even via telehealth right now, so
you're welcome to give our office a call and make
that appointment. We will set you up and get you
tested if you have any questions or concerns.
Again call our office. Make an appointment. We're
happy to talk to you. And stay safe out there.