World Contraception Day might have come and gone on Sept. 26, but it’s never too late to think about sexual health.
Between midterms, textbooks, parties and tuition costs, college students have enough to worry about. A baby or a painful disease in a private place can be too much to handle. Contraceptive use can prevent pregnancies and, depending on the type of contraceptive, may also decrease the likelihood of contracting a sexually transmitted infection.
Some people choose not to use contraceptives because they say they decrease sensitivity, or they cause changes in attitude, or they ruin the mood. But one out of every four college students has an STI. That bears repeating.
One out of every four of your peers has a sexually transmitted infection.
It could even be you. Eighty percent of people who have an STI experience no noticeable symptoms. More than half of participants in one study among college students thought they could tell if a person has an STI just by looking at them. But going to a clinic or a Planned Parenthood location for a test is often the only way to discover an STI. It is always better to be safe than sorry, especially when there is a risk of unknowingly spreading an infection to one or multiple partners.
Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are four times more likely than the total population to have chlamydia, four times more likely to have gonorrhea and two times more likely to have syphilis.
And only 54 percent of students regularly use condoms during intercourse.
Condoms are the only contraceptive that can prevent both pregnancy and disease. But condoms fail 14.2 percent of the time on average use, and many students choose not to use them if one partner is on another contraceptive. Only 60 percent of women in one survey said they knew how to use a condom correctly, while 87 percent of men said they did. Shockingly, 60 percent of college women surveyed said they would have sex even if their partner refused to wear a condom.
Even with proper condom use, the human papilloma virus, commonly called genital warts, can be spread to a partner. Genital warts are the leading cause of cervical cancer in the United States, and can be spread between partners without symptoms. The best defense against HPV is a vaccine, now available to both men and women.
Relying solely on oral contraceptives will not prevent an STI. Early college-aged women also reported the highest rate of contraceptive failure during the first year of use, at 26 percent, and later college-aged women ranked second, at 18 percent.
Using more than one form of birth control, such as condoms and oral contraceptives, is one of the safest ways to enjoy sex. The condom will help to prevent STIs, while the pill can prevent a pregnancy should the condom fail.
Perhaps the strongest offense against unplanned pregnancies and STIs is education. Know the statistics, know how to use contraceptives properly and know your sexual health status. And remember, staying safe does not mean shunning fun.
