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Taken from: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,336749,00.html


At least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease, or more than 3 million teens, according to the first study of its kind in this age group.

A virus that causes cervical cancer is by far the most common sexually transmitted infection in teen girls aged 14 to 19, while the highest overall prevalence is among black girls — nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD. That rate compared with 20 percent among both whites and Mexican-American teens, the study from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

Among girls who admitted ever having sex, the rate was 40 percent. While some teens define sex as only intercourse, other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some infections.

For many, the numbers likely seem "overwhelming because you're talking about nearly half of the sexually experienced teens at any one time having evidence of an STD," said Dr. Margaret Blythe, an adolescent medicine specialist at Indiana University School of Medicine and head of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on adolescence.

But the study highlights what many doctors who treat teens see every day, Blythe said.

Dr. John Douglas, director of the CDC's division of STD prevention, said the results are the first to examine the combined national prevalence of common sexually transmitted diseases among adolescent girls. He said they likely reflect current prevalence rates.

"High STD rates among young women, particularly African-American young women, are clear signs that we must continue developing ways to reach those most at risk," Douglas said.

The CDC's Dr. Kevin Fenton said given that STDs can cause infertility and cervical cancer in women, "screening, vaccination and other prevention strategies for sexually active women are among our highest public health priorities."

The study by CDC researcher Dr. Sara Forhan is an analysis of nationally representative data on 838 girls who participated in a 2003-04 government health survey.

The results were prepared for release Tuesday at a CDC conference in Chicago on preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

Four common diseases were examined — human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer and affected 18 percent of girls studied; chlamydia, which affected 4 percent; trichomoniasis, 2.5 percent; and herpes simplex virus, 2 percent.

Blythe said the results are similar to previous studies examining rates of those diseases individually.

HPV can cause genital warts but often has no symptoms. A vaccine targeting several HPV strains recently became available. Douglas said it likely has not yet had much impact on HPV prevalence rates in teen girls.

Chlamydia and trichomoniasis can be treated with antibiotics. The CDC recommends annual chlamydia screening for all sexually active women under age 25. It also recommends the three-dose HPV vaccine for girls aged 11-12 years, and catch-up shots for females aged 13 to 26.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has similar recommendations.

Douglas said screening tests are underused in part because many teens don't think they're at risk, but also, some doctors mistakenly think, "'Sexually transmitted diseases don't happen to the kinds of patients I see.'"

Blythe said some doctors also are reluctant to discuss STDs with teen patients or offer screening because of confidentiality concerns, knowing parents would have to be told of the results.

The American Academy of Pediatrics supports confidential teen screening, she said.

Actually, it's not sexist or racist. Here's why:

Sex: They studied females here instead of males for a couple of reasons.

1. HPV is one of the main STDs that they were interested in. Last I checked, they were still developing HPV tests for men, but they hadn't perfected any enough to use yet.
2. HPV is more of a problem for females since HPV can increase a woman's chances of getting cervical cancer. Men don't have a cervix to worry about.
3. There is an HPV vaccine for females, but there is not one for males yet.

So when you hear about studies having to do with HPV, they usually focus more on females than males. So it's not sexist, and it's not saying that girls are whores and boys aren't. This study is the way it is due to medical limitations (ie. not being able to study HPV in males as easily, not having a vaccine developed for males yet, etc.).

It's also not intended to scare anyone away from sex. It is more about prevention and education. People have no reason to fear sex, they just need to be educated so they get tested, use condoms, and get their pap every year.

Race: Race is often a factor in studies. That does not mean the studies are racist though. Simply saying "The black women in this study had HPV more often than the white women," is a fact, not a racist statement. There are many reasons that race may be looked at in a study. For example, if black girls do have STDS more often than white girls, we need to know why. Is it something to do with their body (there are some diseases that black people are more prone to)? Is it due to lack of money for condoms (sadly, many black people live in impoverished areas in many cities)? Is it lack of sex education? Bad schools (I have worked in some inner city school with all black kids, and it was not pretty. Not sure what they taught those poor kids, but half my students were pregnant)? Etc. Knowing why helps us to stop that trend.

Especially some of the ones that don't have a lot of symptoms, like HPV. whee

Now that's actually extremely offensive and ignorant. This is not a female problem, and it's not an American problem. There are STDs all over the world. This study just happened to look at STDs in American females.

Having an STD does not make someone "loose," and it doesn't even mean they didn't use a condom. Condoms are not 100% effective at preventing STDs. That means someone could be very careful, always use condoms, and still get an STD.

Some couples go without condoms though because they got tested for STDs, use another form of birth control, or are trying to have a baby. One person may unknowingly give their partner an STD because there are such things as false negatives. Sometimes infected people will not show up as infected right away. HIV is one such example. HIV does not typically show up on tests for at least a few weeks. Also, as I already said, many people have HPV without knowing it, especially since I still don't think there is any HPV test for males available yet.

So learn the facts before being assuming issues are always "black or white."

Ladies are not "obviously catching the STDs from guys." Girls can get STDs from male or female partners. The same goes for guys.

But, yes, I am telling you that ladies aren't "loose." That's because the exact definition of "loose" is debatable. Basically, you are just being cocky and trying to push your morals on everyone else. You can't say that everyone should just masturbate instead of having sex. Sex is not immoral. And you of all people should not be acting so high and mighty when you have a post in this very forum about having sex. That means you could potentially have an STD right now too, whether you use used a condom or not.

4laugh