If You Are Not Pregnant

When a woman thinks she could be facing an unplanned pregnancy, it's often a great relief when she learns she is not pregnant. If you are in this situation you may vow to never "let this happen again."

• Abstinence is the only 100% effective guarantee that you won't get pregnant!
• Abstinence is the only 100% effective guarantee that you won't get an STD!
• Abstinence will spare you the heartache that sex often brings to an unmarried person.

The truth is that sexual activity outside marriage has serious health risks. Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) affect millions of people each year. Many of these diseases are incurable!

Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Infections

STDs: A Growing Concern

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are a major public health problem in the United States. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 19 million new infections occur every year, almost half of them among young people aged 15 to 24. In fact, 1 in 3 sexually active people have an STD, and some aren't even aware that they have it. These diseases result in profound physical and emotional consequences for those infected and their loved ones.

STDs Harm in Many Ways

Listed are some of the most common sexually transmitted diseases and a few important facts about each.

• Chlamydia: Chlamydia trachomatis can permanently damage a woman's reproductive organs. Even though symptoms of chlamydia are usually mild (or absent), serious complications, including infertility, can occur before a woman ever recognizes a problem. Chlamydia also can cause discharge from the penis of an infected man. Men might also have burning and itching around the opening of the penis.


• Gonorrhea: Neisseria gonorrhoeae can grow and multiply in the warm, moist areas of the reproductive tract, as well as the mouth, throat, eyes, and anus. Untreated gonorrhea can cause serious and permanent health problems and sterility in both women and men. In women, gonorrhea is a common cause of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), leading to infertility or even death.


• Genital Herpes: Herpes simplex virus typically appears as one or more blisters on or around the genitals or rectum. The blisters break, leaving tender ulcers (sores) that may take two to four weeks to heal the first time they occur, but the infection can stay in the body indefinitely, and cause outbreaks over a period of years. Transmission can occur from an infected partner who does not have a visible sore and may not know that he or she is infected.


• Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/AIDS: One primary way that HIV is spread is by sexual contact with an infected person. AIDS, or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, develops when HIV weakens the immune system to the point that it can no longer fight off infection or disease. In the United States, over half a million people have died from AIDS.


• Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) / Genital Warts: Human papillomavirus is the name of a group of viruses that includes more than 100 different strains or types, and more than 30 of these are sexually transmitted. They can infect the genital area of men and women including the skin of the penis, vagina, cervix, and rectum. Certain types of HPV can cause genital warts in men and women. Other HPV types can cause cervical cancer and other less common cancers, such as cancers of the vulva, vagina, anus, and penis.


• Hepatitis B: Hepatitis B (HBV) is a serious disease caused by a virus that attacks the liver. HPV can be spread sexually from an infected person. The virus can cause lifelong infection, cirrhosis (scarring) of the liver, liver cancer, liver failure, and death.


• Syphilis: Treponema pallidum, or syphilis, has often been called "the great imitator" because so many of the signs and symptoms are like those of other diseases. Syphilis is transmitted through direct contact with a syphilis sore. Sores occur mainly on the external genitals, vagina, anus, or in the rectum. Untreated, the disease may damage the internal organs, including the brain, nerves, eyes, heart, blood vessels, liver, bones, and joints.


• Trichomoniasis: Trichomonas vaginalis is the most common curable STD in young, sexually active women. Some women have symptoms which include a frothy, yellow-green vaginal discharge with a strong odor. The disease causes small red sores on the vaginal wall or cervix. It can increase a woman's susceptibility to HIV infection if she is exposed to the virus.

Source: US Centers for Disease Control, Division of STD Prevention.