I don’t know about you, but pretty much any time I hear a new stat on sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), I have the urge to run out and get tested. I could have literally just left the doctor’s office with the OK after a battery of tests and still feel the need to make sure I’m actually clean as a whistle.
The stigma, the thought of having to explain a sexually transmitted disease to a new partner, and the effect of an STD on my overall health weigh on my mind too heavily to do otherwise. And the idea that somewhere down the line a disease could prevent me from having children is a fear that shakes me when I think about possibly contracting an STD.
A new report from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention shows that black people have the worst rates of STDs overall—even despite the recent drop in the spread of syphilis.
- Rates of Chlamydia among African-Americans are about 1,383 per 100,000, compared with 467 per 100,000 among Hispanics and 166 per 100,000 for whites.
- Rates of gonorrhea for whites are 26 per 100,000. Among Hispanics, rates are about three times that at 63 per 100,000, and among African Americans, the rates are 512 per 100,000.
- Rates of syphilis have fallen to 2.4 per 100,000 for whites, 5.9 per 100,000 Hispanics, and 20 per 100,000 for African Americans.
I think people tend to look at STDs the way I used to look at cancer. I know how prevalent cancer is, but because I never knew anyone personally affected by it until a few months ago, it was just an abstract concept. We hear about the rates of STDs and HIV in our community so much, but I think we don’t quite understand what those numbers mean. If we’ve gotten off the hook before with a disease scare, we’re probably even more likely to think it can’t happen to us or that there aren’t really as many infected people as there truly are.
But numbers don’t lie, and people in the African-American community are the most impacted by STDs of all groups.
Dr. Kevin Fenton, Director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, says the cause of the disparity is not racial. He told the press recently: “It’s not because someone is black or Hispanic or white that results in the differences that we see in STDs. It’s really what these represent in terms of differences in health insurance coverage, employment status, in ability to access preventive services or curative services. These are all factors which are going to have a huge impact on communities as well as individuals who are vulnerable to acquiring STDs or not getting them diagnosed early.”
It’s clear that there are social factors causing the disparity, but I wonder if there’s also a lack of awareness of the severity of some of these diseases. Chlamydia, gonorrhea, and herpes are often seen as “harmless” simply because they are not deadly, but that doesn’t mean these infections are without consequence. Number one, they increase the risk of contracting HIV if exposed to the virus while you have another STD. Although the virus is no longer a death sentence, a cure is a long way off. Becoming HIV-positive is still a life-long chronic condition.
For women especially, getting an STD in our youth can prevent us from bearing children down the line because infections can scar our reproductive system, and render us sterile. You also risk giving an STD to your child when giving birth, should you have one without knowing it. We usually only think of babies in terms of sexual health when it comes to unwanted pregnancies, but you should also think about the fact that if you want children later, risky sexual behavior could prevent that.
It is concerns like these that make it important for us to not gloss over these new findings. Condoms and a partner’s sexual past may not be the most fun topics of discussion, but they are necessary issues. Getting these issues out in the open certainly pales in comparison to explaining to someone that you have an incurable disease or you are unable to bear children because you weren’t careful one night.
I think the high rates of STDs in our community are less about access to information and more about a lack of love for self. No one is worth compromising your sexual health, and as women we have an obligation to put ourselves and our potential future offspring first when it comes to protecting ourselves. No one else can make this decision for us.
Do you think lack of access to health care and education are the main reasons for the high rates of STDs in the black community or are there other factors at play? Can women help shift these trends by taking more responsibility for our reproductive and sexual health?
Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.
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