SHS Podcast: Sexually Transmitted Infections – Student Health Services
[Narrator Voice #1]: Howdy and welcome to the TAMUhealth podcast. Conversations about health as it relates to the Texas A&M student. Brought to you by Student Health Services. You can find us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), our handle is @TAMUhealth, and visit our website at shs.tamu.edu. Thanks for tuning in.
[Male Voice]: Hello! I want to welcome everybody to this podcast. This podcast is hosted by the Women’s Clinic at A.P. Beutelat Student Health Services. By way of introduction, my name is Dr. Hector Chapa, I’m Clinic Assistant Professor at Texas A&M College of Medicine, and with me today is Miss Pam. Pam, would you like to introduce yourself?
[Female Voice]: Hi, I’m Pam Golub, and I’m a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner at the Women’s Clinic at A&M.
[Male Voice]: Well, even though we are going to be covering a topic brought to you by the Women’s Clinic, I want to clear something up right off the bat. This does not apply only to women. This podcast has to do with both males and females, so get ready because we are going to talk about something that I know you have questions about because it’s a very important topic. We are talking about sexually transmitted infections. Now before we get into this topic, you’ve got to know some of the basic background on this, so, here it is.
Every year, almost 20 million adults in this country contract a sexually transmitted disease, or a STD, and that number is alarming! Some of the most common STI’s or STD’s don’t cause any symptoms and we are going to talk about these today so that you can protect yourself and stay healthy. But, even though they don’t have symptoms, they can still lead to serious health problems, and in females, can even cause infertility (that’s difficulty with conception or difficulty getting pregnant). Now in Women, certain bacterial STIs can lead to these problems because they can damage the fallopian tubes and that causes, again, this issue of infertility, and it can also cause a complication of pregnancy itself, which is an ectopic pregnancy, commonly known as a tubal pregnancy. So, having this information on STI’s is vital to stay healthy and in your reproductive life later. So learning about these STI’s are important, not just for you, but for your partner as well. Well having said that as a basic intro, let’s jump right into it. We are going to talk about one of the most common viral conditions out there, and I’m sure you’ve heard about that. We are going to talk about Human Papillomavirus, or HPV, right now. Pam, what can you tell us about HPV?
[Female Voice]: HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection. There are more than 14 million new cases each year in the United States. There are more than 40 different types of HPV that can infect the genitals, the mouth, the throat, and both men and women can get the infection. Most men and women who are sexually active will have at least one type of HPV at some time in their life and not have any complications from it.
HPV spreads from one person to another through vaginal, or oral sex. You can get the virus even if your partner has no symptoms. Fortunately, vaccines like Gardasil protect people against many types of HPV- but not all types. The Gardasil vaccine is for men and women.
HPV infections are usually not harmful and they often go away on their own within two years. The problem is there are some types of HPV that can lead to serious illnesses and serious problems. These include genital warts and cervical cancer and throat cancer. Now genital warts sometimes linger and have to be removed by a provider. Pap smears, which we do on women after they turn 21, are meant to detect the harmful strains of HPV very early in order to find the cervical cells that have changed and may carry the virus that can advance to cervical cancer. Smoking cigarettes may help the virus “hang around” the cervical longer so it’s an additional factor leading to more abnormal pap smears—another reason not to smoke, Ags.
[Male Voice]: Well we just covered HPV, that’s the most common viral sexually transmitted infection in the country, and not just in the country, but globally. Well keeping that trend with what’s the most common, let’s switch over now away from viruses and talk about the most common bacterial STI. I know you’ve probably heard about it. This is Chlamydia.
Chlamydia is a bacterial infectionand it can be totally curable if detected. Possible signs of infection are a discharge from the penis or the vagina and can include burning upon urination. However, most people and the Centers for Disease Control state that up to 80% of those infected canhave no symptoms at all. In men, about 60% of people, 60% of men, are asymptomatic, that means without symptoms. That’s why the CDC recommends annual testing for all sexually active persons under the age of 26 (or more frequently if you have several sexual partners). Right now, there are 3 million new cases every year of Chlamydia in the US.
Chlamydia spreads through sexual contact with the penis, vagina, mouth or anus of an infected person. A pregnant woman can pass chlamydia to her child during childbirth. So, even if you’ve been treated for chlamydia in the past, you can still get chlamydia as a new infection once again.
Your doctor can treat chlamydia with antibiotics. Without treatment, chlamydia can lead to serious health issues. It can also cause infertility because it results in tubal damage. Women can develop pelvic inflammatory disease and affect your chance of getting pregnant. Additionally, tubal damage caused by this bacteria can lead to a specific complication in pregnancy that we discussed at the intro, and that’s an ectopic pregnancy. That can be life-threatening. So let’s review real quick before we move onto our third sexually transmitted infection. We’ve covered HPV, the most common viral STI in the country. We’ve covered Chlamydia, the most common bacterial STI in the country. Well, now let’s switch to the third, which is neither a virus nor a bacteria. It’s actual a protozoal infection. We’ll get into that right now. Pam, take us into the topic of trichomoniasisor trichomonas.
[Female Voice]: Trichomonasis one of the one infections that people have never, ever heard of. This infection comes from a parasite that can be passed from one person to another during sex. It can spread from a man to a woman, a woman to a man, or from one woman to another woman. There are 1 million new cases each year in the United States. Women usually develop the infection inside the vagina or the urethra. Men can develop trichomonasinside the penis or inside the urethra. The infection usually doesn’t spread to the mouth or other parts of the body.
Now most people with trichomonasdon’t have symptoms but sometimes infected people experience itching or burning during urination. Or, you can have a discharge from the penis or the vagina. That can be another sign of trichomoniasis as well as having a very badvaginal odor. Now these symptoms may come and go, and taking antibiotics gets rid of the infection. So that’s really good to know that it’s one
we can clear up. So now, like Dr. Chapa said, we have gone over the bacterial, a viral, and a parasitic, let’s go back and talk about another bacterial infection, Dr. Chapa.
[Male Voice]: Alright, so as we’ve just covered, Chlamydia, HPV, and even the parasite, Trich, yeah, let’s get back to bacteria. Now, I know you’ve thought about it because we’ve talked about Chlamydia, remember the most common STI that’s a bacteria in the country, but Chlamydia usually travels with a friend, and that friend is Gonorrhea. At one time, Gonorrhea surpassed the number of Chlamydial cases, but that’s not the issue anymore. Gonorrhea is a bacteria, like Chlamydia, that can infecta women’s reproductive tract, that’s the cervix, the uterus itself, or like Chlamydia, the tubes can become infected. Every year in the United States, there are more than 800,000 new cases of Gonorrhea detected.
Gonorrhea can also develop in the urethra, in the mouth, throat, eyes and even the anus of both men and women. Gonorrhea spreads through sexual contact with the penis, the vagina, mouth or anus of an infected person. And like Chlamydia, a pregnant woman can pass gonorrhea to her child during childbirth.
People with gonorrhea often have mild or no symptoms. So, did you catch that? The exact same issue with Chlamydia. Most of these infections can go unnoticed but still cause a lot of harm and damage. Signs of the infection can include painful urination, white, yellow or green discharge from the penis or vagina. Men can develop pain in their testicles as well. Women can also have abnormal vaginal bleeding between periods.
Now treatment of this bacteria involves two different antibiotics, whereas Chlamydia only takes one antibiotic to resolve. Without treatment, gonorrhea, like Chlamydia, can lead to these serious health issues that we’ve already covered, like pelvic inflammatory disease, tubal infection, infertility and ectopic pregnancy. Men with gonorrhea can develop inflammation of the tube that helps carry sperm, and that can lead to male factor infertility. Alright, as we are getting close to the end of our podcast, let’s cover yet another virus that again, I’m sure you’ve hear about. Pam, what’s going on with genital herpes?
[Female Voice]: Now, the fifth infection that we want to talk about is a viral infection that everyone seems to be the most concerned about: this is genital herpes. This infection comes from the herpes simplex virus (or sometimes called HSV), and there are two types: type 1 or type 2. Historically, type 1 presented as a cold sore on the lips and type 2 was genital…however, this is not so distinct anymore as genital sores can result from herpes 1 and facial lip sores can be from type 2. Now new cases each year develop in the United States there are almost 800,000 in a year. You can get herpes by having vaginal, anal or oral sex with someone who is infected. Some people with herpes have mild symptoms. Some have none at all. Other people have outbreaks of lesions that look like blisters around their genitals, the rectum or the mouth. These blisters can break open and become painful sores (or ulcers) that may take some time to heal, anywhere from a few days to a week or two.
The fluid inside the herpes contains the virus. You can become infected if you come in contact with it because the virus can spread through the skin. Infected people can pass the virus to their partners even if they don't have sores. Especially with herpes 1, this is the fasting growing number of the 2. Someone can be exposed as a child and not have any recognizable symptoms, not even know that they have it, but they are still able to spread infection to their partners. Outbreaks of herpes in the genital can
happen again and again, just like cold sores can happen on your mouth when you get stressed out. Outbreaks usually become shorter and are less severe over time. Condoms only prevent herpes if they are covered by the condom. They will not protect you if your partner has ulcers from the virus in exposed areas which come into contact with you. This can be around the scrotal sac or around the outside of the vagina. Most lesions do occur where the condom does not cover it. If you have an oral cold sore you should not give oral sex to a partner since that may spread the virus, and do not RECEIVE oral sex if you have a suspicious genital sore either. There is no cure for herpes. But your doctor can prescribe medicines that help prevent and shorten the outbreaks and ease the pain.
Now I don’t want you to get confused with all the initials, herpes sometimes is called HSV, there’s HIV (which is the virus that can cause AIDS), and we’ve talked about HPV. So we have covered two viruses, two bacterial infections, and a parasite. Dr. Chapa, do you have some more words of wisdom on sexual infections?
[Male Voice]:Ok, so now just a couple of things about two common vaginal conditions, which actually aren’t a STI (a sexually transmitted infection), but you may have heard about these as well. These are yeast infections and bacterial vaginosis (that’s typically called BV for short). These two conditions are NOT considered sexually transmitted because even virginal women can have them. Yeast infections may occur after taking antibiotics, they can occur after prolonged moisture in the genital area, or even result from uncontrolled diabetes. Bacterial vaginosis is an imbalance of the normal vaginal bacteria that usually results in a change in the acidity of the vagina, or the vaginal PH. Although BV can be more common in sexually active women, it is not considered a traditional sexually transmitted infection. Both of these conditions can present with vaginal discharge and discomfort, and they usually can be relieved with medical therapy. So I just wanted to clarify that as we are talking about vaginal conditions. Yeast infections, and bacterial vaginosis, which really are very common in the female population, are not considered STI’s.
Now, due to time limits, we just can’t cover every STIs out there…syphilis, hepatitis, and HIV are still present in the community. The CDC, which is the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, recommends annual testing of gonorrhea, chlamydia, HIV and syphilis as a majority of people who have these have no symptoms. Just because someone is clean or has no signs doesn’t mean that they aren’t potentially infected!So, know your body and know your sexual partners well and get tested. Remember, periodically, through the student health clinic, free testing for STI’s is done so make sure to check the website or call because this is a service available to everyone. Remember, that this is important to keep yourself healthy, and your partner, for good sexual health. We hope you enjoyed this podcast we’ve covered of common sexually transmitted infections. We will see you next time.
[Narrator Voice]: This is a production of TAMU health. Please note that these conversations are never meant to replace your home primary care physician. For any specific health questions, and prior to making a change with your medical care, please discuss with your provider, or come see us at Student Health Services. If you have specific topics for thepodcast, you can reach us through social media (TAMUhealth) on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or send us an email at . More information about the clinic can be found at Thanks and Gig ‘Em!
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