Michael Douglas: Bush's fault!

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Okay but if you were going to be with a brand new partner tomorrow who you knew had had partners in the last ten years wouldn't you bring it up? You don't know if they have an STD that has no symptoms yet (or as far as men go with some STD's, ever). Unless the guy was a widower who'd never cheated and who'd been married to the now dead faithful wife for decades I would be saying "time to go get a test". I wouldn't want to get chlamydia or syphilis or gonorrhea or herpes or HPV warts or any of these other delightful things, much less AIDS. Men don't even go to the doctor when they are dying of flu half the time, I wouldn't risk it that they would go to get their penis looked at because it was itchy once but hey, it went away. Herpes is forever.

Yes teenagers are stupid and wouldn't do this, but if it was even easier and quicker and SHAME FREE (like the school nurse could run a quick test) this could gradually change. When adults don't want to do it themselves though it's going to take a long time to filter down to the younger ones.

 

[bigdaddy]

Sex is fun, all that ever happens is you go "You get tested? You good?" then you fuck. I don't know what type of relationships you have but I have never ever asked people for paperwork. You trust them.

And for HIV it takes at least 6 weeks (rarely up to 10 months) to test positive and in the meantime you think you are fine, you go out and have fun.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

I don't know about you but when I was dating, I didn't ask to see blood tests. I'm fairly sure teenagers don't do it now.

Teens think they are immortal.

Gen Y's know they're not, but they don't care.

Gen X'ers are starting to know people who've died and are beginning to worry. Wondering if they made the right choice when they ignored the future and never asked what they didn't want to know.

Baby Boomers aren't worried about dying, they are worried they'll outlive their pension plans.

Remember what Mickey Mantel said... "If I knew I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself.

Oh, and Teacake, forget about testing your new partner for HPV, or your son's / daughter's new partner. ASSUME anyone over 26 or anyone who's been sexually active for at least 4 years (no matter how young) HAS BEEN INFECTED.

You'll sleep better that way.

 

[Deckerd]

The medical world assume anyone over 17 is too late to vaccinate.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Oh, and Teacake, forget about testing your new partner for HPV, or your son's / daughter's new partner. ASSUME anyone over 26 or anyone who's been sexually active for at least 4 years (no matter how young) HAS BEEN INFECTED.

You'll sleep better that way.

So then what the eff are you supposed to do? Always wear condoms and dental dams? Forever even in a monogamous relationship? What if you want to have a baby, are you risking cancer having barrier free sex?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Best to assume you're already infected. Infection doesn't mean you will get cancer though.

 

[Deckerd]

Yeah if the figures bandied around earlier are anything to go by, the chances of you not having the virus are very slim but the chances of you developing a serious condition from it are pretty slim too.

 

[Forbin]

I've never even HEARD of a dental dam until this thread.
How the hell do you have any fun with THAT?

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Oh, and Teacake, forget about testing your new partner for HPV, or your son's / daughter's new partner. ASSUME anyone over 26 or anyone who's been sexually active for at least 4 years (no matter how young) HAS BEEN INFECTED.

You'll sleep better that way.

So then what the eff are you supposed to do? Always wear condoms and dental dams? Forever even in a monogamous relationship? What if you want to have a baby, are you risking cancer having barrier free sex?

(I've been gone since Friday, sorry this answer is so delayed.)

Teacake, lets go back to the numbers I quoted for the USA.

In a country of 313 million... they estimate 79 million (25.2%) of the population are currently infected.

360,000 get genital warts... that's only 0.0012% of the US population.

12,000 of the women get cervical cancer. (assume 156 million women) that's only 0.000077% of the female US pop.

6700 men get oropharnygeal cancer (assume 156 million men) that's only 0.000043% of the male US pop.

1700 women get oropharnygeal cancer (assume 156 million men) that's only 0.000011% of the US female pop.

If there are 4.1 million live births in the USA on 820 suffer the rare Recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP), that's just 0.00020% of all newborns.

So... if things in my country (and I assume your's, since the rates for our 2 countries are similar for cervical cancer) don't sound "that" bad when we use actual numbers... what's the big freaking deal?

Well, death is never a good thing, when it can be prevented.

So we screen our fertile female population for cancer and catch the problem early. That's one of the big issues in South America and Africa, there's not enough screening.

So, one does pap tests and exams looking for problems. When they are found we deal with them.

Each person also considers the lifestyle they want to live and the risks they want to take to live it.

We are talking about Michael Douglas and his HPV (possibly) induced cancer, but what about the hundreds of thousands of women in the USA who suufer (annually) problems related to other sexually transmitted diseases which can result in pain and infertility?

http://www.cdc.gov/std/PID/stats.htm

That's the REAL issue (all STDs) we need to focus on and how they can be decreased with safe sex practices and wise choices.

I've never even HEARD of a dental dam until this thread.
...

TELL ME about it.

You have no idea how embarrassed I was when I first discovered the concept this past winter (It was in a novel I was reading. I had to look the darned thing up!).

Sigh.

I'm such an idiot sometimes.

 

[bigdaddy]

I've never even HEARD of a dental dam until this thread.
How the hell do you have any fun with THAT?

I knew of them but have never ever met anyone who has eve used them.

There becomes a point in which you just don't care, that you have to live and not worry about every damn thing getting you.

It's like not eating steak because you re afraid that the char will give you cancer. Eat the damn yummy steak because the bus hits you crossing the street.

 

[JarodRussell]

That scares me a little. How can one not know about it?


Do we really need to introduce licences before people are allowed to fuck?

 

[Pingfah]

Yikes. I'll take my chances au naturale.

 

[Deckerd]

Are you saying you're posting with your clothes off again?

 

[Pingfah]

That doesn't go down too well at work.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Given the thread, care to rephrase?

 

[JarodRussell]

Yikes. I'll take my chances au naturale.

Happy STDs.

 

[Pingfah]

Happy being-a-smug-presumptuous-know-it-all.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

That doesn't go down too well at work.