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Girls Bearing Burden of Sexually Transmitted Diseases 

Maven McGann

One of the scariest things that can happen to a sexually active individual is contracting a sexually transmitted disease. This genesis of this fear is because it’s almost impossible to get rid of certain STDs and some can linger and later cause  infertility in women. 

Students are taught from a young age to have protected sex to avoid STDs and teen pregnancy. In school, girls are also taught to use sexual protection. But socially, girls are pressured to do things they don’t feel comfortable doing by boyfriends, girlfriends and other peers. 

The problem is that this pressure contributes to rising STD rates, and STDs can lead to infertility. One in four teenage girls have STDs, according to the Office of Women’s Health.

Syphilis cases nearly doubled, gonorrhea cases increased by 67 percent, Chlamydia remained at record highs and in the District of Columbia, an estimated 2.86 million infections occur annually,according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a federal agency that conducts and supports health promotion

The rising numbers of people with STDs are frightening, because STDs are increasing not declining, even though the United States has the technology and resources to prevent it. Mostly because “people don’t get tested as much as they should because STDs are stigmatized especially on a college campus,” says Alexandra Banks a rising senior at Howard University.

“Women under the age of 25 are almost always screened for chlamydia and gonorrhea,” said Mark S. Johnson, M.D., chair of the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Howard University. Dr. Johnson was also explaining that when girls contract chlamydia and gonorrhea it can negatively affect their fertility by scarring the fallopian tubes and making it hard in the future for eggs to travel in the reproductive system. However, if a woman has an STD does not know about it and gets pregnant, she could pass the STD to the baby. 

Some young girls are likely to contract an STD, because of social inequalities and gender norms. The gender norms tell girls that they have to do what guys want, even if they don’t want to use condoms. Girls in relationships are pushed to have unprotected sex, because it is better for the boys. A 25 year old participant in a CDC study states, “even when you inform men that they should use condom, that you are infected with STI’s they will still insist on unprotected sex.”  In addition, other girls push the idea that their friends should just go along with what the guys want and they will be fine.

Rape victims  often contract  STDs. In a study of 204 girls, 43 percent who were examined 72 hours after being raped tested positive for an STD, according to the National Center for Biotechnological Information at the National Institutes of Health. This means statistically girls who are raped have almost a 50 percent chance of contracting an STD. So it is important to get tested after a sexual assault. 

It is important that girls use condoms. Condoms are not only an effective birth prevention, but they are also a good prevention for STDs. Girls need to learn how to protect themselves from these STDs. If girls don’t protect themselves, then no one will.

Maven McGann is a sophomore at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School.