Читать книгу Getting Pregnant For Dummies - Sharon Perkins - Страница 86

The onset of the sexual revolution in the 1960s caused a lot of fallout, and some of it fell on future fertility. Sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, (formerly called STDs or sexually transmitted diseases) have increased dramatically in the last 20 years. More than 13 million Americans each year are affected, and many STDs pack a major anti-fertility wallop for both sexes. The 2017 CDC data on STIs reported that three STIs had a record all-time high. The report stated that gonorrhea rose by 67 percent, syphilis by 76 percent, and chlamydia by 21 percent from the previous year. In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported an estimated 376 million new cases of STIs each year (namely, chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, or trichomoniasis). One researcher speculated that while people were having less sex, they engaged in riskier sexual habits such as condom-less sex and opioid addicted–related sex.

You may not even know that you have a sexually transmitted disease. Some STDs cause a vaginal or penile discharge, others cause itching or small sores, but some cause no symptoms at all. Most are easily treated with antibiotics. The problem is that many women don’t realize they have an infection because most have no clear symptoms. The following sections describe a few of the most damaging STDs and provide some statistics about the diseases in the United States.