STD's, Condom Use, and Pregnancy part 1

Ok so on the weekend I was having a chat with my friends and we got on the topic of STD's and they were throwing around the old stereotpes (which is fine) but I quickly realized that some of them really didn't know what some of them were and probably have no idea the prevalence of occurance. I just took a Moral Ed. Class last semester and I have learned alot about sex ed. so I will pass on some of my knowledge.

HPV (humanpapillomavirus) or Genital Warts is present in 80% of all sexually active people. Yes I said 80%. This means that if you've slept with 3 or more people, chances are you've been exposed at some point in your life. It is the most common STD to catch, but here's the catch; condoms will not prevent it easily. It is a skin to skin contact contraction so since more than just the penis has contact with the skin, it is possible to spread even with "protection". The best way of preventing it's spread is for the male to wear their boxers and a condom to limit skin to skin contact. This method is of course not fool proof but it helps.

People can carry and spread the virus even though they show no symptoms or visible warts. Some people will never have a problem with HPV for their whole life even though they carry it.
There are 100 different types of HPV some are worse than others. Some are linked to cervixial cancer, but many are just a nuisance.

HPV will clear up on it's own because our immune systems are pretty amazing things. Eventually your body will develop an anit-body and kill the virus off, and you'll be immune to that strain.

There is a vaccine being developed for a few of the cancer causing strains, as well as, some non-cancerous strains it should be released in 2006/2007.
As far as STDs go this isn't the worst you could have even though it's most common.

HSV1-2 (Herpes Simlex Virus types 1 (cold sores) type 2 (genital sores)
Not the most pleasent of STDs to have. The sores sting and look awful when flaring up. Again some people can live with Herpes for years without any signs of infection and then have a sudden flare up. A person with no signs of infection can spread HSV to another person. Again like HPV condoms are pretty much useless at preventing the disease.

It's estimated that about 30% of sexually active adults have one type of Herpes or the other.
Herpes is treatable with drugs like Valtrex with lower flare-ups.

That's all for now
More to come later
peace and be safe out there