Does it burn when you urinate? Do you often get an itching sensation where the sun doesn’t shine? Did it all happen after getting “extra” friendly with the opposite sex?
Well, if any of the scenarios above seem to fit an embarrassing situation “below” that you have experienced, you may have a Sexually transmitted disease. This is not uncommon for college students here and across the country these days, Fairfield health officials say; yet most think it is taboo.
“Drinking more alcohol with high levels of intoxication creates students who are not in the frame of mind to make good decisions,” said Jeanne DiMuzio, director of the Wellness and Prevention Program of Fairfield University’s Health Center.
“Students quite often, end up making unhealthy choices. It is not a type of harassment or assault, but it is regretful sex that is unprotected and that is what gives STDs and unwanted pregnancy.” she said.
Many Fairfield students as well as other students from Connecticut universities acknowledged the problem exists, but were not too eager to talk about it. They all asked that their names not be used.
“I heard the beach, last year, had crabs going around like it was the flu,” said one Fairfield University student.
“College is all about partying and enjoying the years before you have to buckle down and I don’t want anything to stand in my way,” said an unidentified female at Quinnipiac University.
A varsity football player from Sacred Heart University said, “My girlfriend is on birth control so we never use a condom. In fact she actually messed up her cycle and we had to use a condom, but I was not able to have sex with a condom.”
A former Trumbull High School graduate who now attends the University of Connecticut saw the problem firsthand. She said, “One of my close girlfriends from high school got herpes from her boyfriend who was cheating on her and she still has sex with other guys, but just doesn’t tell them. My whole graduating class from high school has something nasty.”
A female Fairfield University student claims, “Even though I go to Fairfield U., I often go party at Uconn and I wouldn’t trust those guys as far as I can throw them!”
Infection rates for many sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have begun to rise, mostly among people between the ages of 13 and 24 since the mid 1990s, says Pfizer Inc. Studies show that a few of the most common STDs are chlamydia, genital herpes, pubic lice and genital warts that can be transmitted during oral, vaginal or anal sexual contact with an infected partner.
The most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States is human papillomavirus (HPV) otherwise known as genital warts. Most infected carriers of HPV do not experience any symptoms. There are several types of HPV with the high-risk types linked with cervical cancer. Women can prevent cervical cancer by getting regular pap smears by their physicians, said the National Institutes of Health on CNN.
Warts appear to be raised or flat, single or multiple, flesh – colored or whitish in appearance. The external warts can be so small that they are not visible to the human eye or they can be so large the infected person may need a larger pant size.
Chlamydia otherwise referred to as “the clap” by college students, is a curable STD. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates mores than four million people are infected each year.
Many universities around the nation have programs that promote safe sex and provide excessive information to students about STDs, according to recent campus newspaper stories distributed by the U-Wire.
University of Pittsburgh’s Campus Women’s Organization (CWO) sponsors “SEXpardy” which is a version of Jeopardy that deals with all the topics of sex. This is part of CWO’s Sex Week that includes a marathon of HBO TV series “Sex and the City,” an overflowing basket of free condoms and a health fair.
Yet Fairfield finds it difficult to provide similar awareness activities due to its Jesuit Orientation.
“The theme is to bring Catholic beliefs into everyday life,” DiMuzio said. “We do not hand out condoms because we are a Jesuit University. And when students made their decisions to come to this university, they knew that some things were not going to be offered. If students are going to act like adults then they need to take responsibility and use their own dollars to get the resources they need themselves like an adult.”
“When they leave Fairfield and continue on, they are not going to be coming back to Fairfield’s Health Center to get condoms,” added DiMuzio. “We do have response and education programs as well as always publishing information in the ‘Stall Street Journal’ posted on campus. We also put information on our website and have pamphlets that need to be restocked often so we know the students use them.”
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