By Ashlyn Brothers
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) — Winter is well known for romance or what many college students call cuffing season, but this Valentine’s Day doctors have encouraged their patients to spread love, not infections.
According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, one in two sexually active young adults will contract an STD by age 25. Along with this staggering statistic, the CDC estimates that there are nearly 20-million new STIs every year. Roughly half of those cases are amid youth ages 15 to 24.
UA Senior Taffy Kavanaugh had first-hand experience during December of his junior year which inspired him to raise awareness about healthy sex practices. When he first noticed symptoms he initially thought they would dissipate. After a month, Kavanaugh knew he needed to get tested.
“As soon as I [took the test] they took a look at it & said ‘you definitely have something, but we don’t know what it is yet,’” Kavanaugh said.
Kavanaugh heard the words you never want to hear. He had contracted chlamydia.
“It just burns when you pee. The symptoms are a lot like having a UTI,” said Kavanaugh. “There was a discharge in terms of like, it just like kind of leaks out. […] You could kind of see like the bacteria growth in the urine, like in the toilet.”
Doctors prescribed him an antibiotic & he was told to abstain from sex until completely cured.
Dr. Lawrence Schemel, a family practitioner with Mercy Springdale, said symptoms vary depending on the disease, but among the most common symptoms are burning while using the bathroom & some sort of discharge, whether male or female.
“As a secondary symptom for STIs, herpes, you develop blisters or a sore. Same thing with syphilis. You tend to have a sore,” Dr. Schemel said.
Health professionals advise anyone who is sexually active to get tested regularly. Dr. Schemel said it’s important to stop the spread as quickly as possible.
“Any symptoms, you need to get tested. It’s a simple test, anymore. Usually just a urine test,” said Dr. Schemel. “You know, sometimes [it’s] a urine & a blood test, but, you know, it doesn’t require a real invasive exam, so the reasons not to get tested aren’t there.”
STDs can be treated with modern medicine when detected early, but prescriptions can’t cure everything. In fact, some STDs don’t initially show symptoms. Dr. Schemel tells UATV that STIs can have lifelong implications.
“Gonorrhea & chlamydia both can, in the female, in particular, can cause an infection in the pelvis that can lead to scarring & infertility. Syphilis longterm can cause neurological damage, heart damage,” said Dr. Schemel. “Herpes just, you know, can cause reoccurring painful blisters that don’t really have a cure, so they just continue to come on & off throughout your life.”
STDs differ across demographics. Dr. Schemel said the African American population has the highest prevalence of STDs & so do the counties that have the highest prevalence of African Americans.
“They have the highest numbers, like Pulaski County & the Mississippi Delta region,” Dr. Schemel said.
However, this isn’t the only population with a high prevalence of STDs.
“You know, Fayetteville with the university has its own little cluster of increased risk that isn’t, you know, so racially segregated,” Dr. Schemel said.
Two common concerns that students expressed when considering getting tested include the fear of a diagnosis in general & the student’s parents finding out. Only, Zac Brown, the Pat Walker Health Center assistant communications director, points people in the direction of patient confidentiality. He said there are two options for payment which include billing through insurance or paying out of pocket.
“When we bill for a private account privacy laws prevent us from being able to say what those services were. So, when a student checks their account & has a bill from the Health Center it’s just going to show services rendered, as opposed to specifically what they had done here. There really isn’t that fear of their parents finding out,” Brown said.
According to the CDC, Arkansas ranked 11th & 8th in America for the highest reported Chlamydia & Gonorrhea cases in 2018. That exceeds the national rates for the fourth consecutive year. Students said there’s a lack of sex education in the public school system.
“We didn’t have any real sex education. It was our, you know, PE gym coach in health class being like, ‘Okay, this is what you got. This is what this looks like. This is what the symptoms are. It’s gross. Don’t get it,’” said Kavanaugh. “It wasn’t something we really worried about because we didn’t know anything about it. As a teenager, you just don’t think you’re going to get it.”
Dr. Schemel thinks the increase in STDs has to do with poor use of condoms or a low education level consistent with young adults.
“I think our high school youth are educated on it but are not very good at acting on it, so they’re probably more likely to have unprotected sex. Especially in early sexual encounters, because they’re not prepared, & you know, they may not be emotionally prepared,” said Dr. Schemel. “The older population I think it probably is a lack of education.”
Whatever the reason, a common consensus among students & health professionals is to use contraceptives, have open conversations with your sexual partners & get yourself tested.
“The only preventative measures we have is either abstinence or, you know, very judicious use of condoms. There isn’t really anything else you can do to prevent an STD,” said Dr. Schemel. “There is a vaccine for genital warts or human papillomavirus that you can get starting as a young adolescent all the way up to the age of 25 or even up to age 40. I think they’ve improved the vaccine.”
The Pat Walker Health Center offers comprehensive sexual health testing for sexually transmitted diseases both for a patient who is experiencing symptoms & a patient who isn’t. The Get Yourself Tested clinic is open Monday through Saturday during regular business hours. The clinic takes walk-in appointments or appointments requested online. Students who go in for a $40 screening can expect to receive their results within two to three business days. Pat Walker’s provider can then provide a prescription that can be filled at a local pharmacy. Brown tells UATV there is nothing to be ashamed of. He wants every patient to feel that way the moment they set foot in Pat Walker.
“The idea when we created this clinic was that we really wanted to streamline the process of getting tested & normalizing the aspect of it not being a big deal,” said Brown. “Everyone’s getting tested. It’s a really important factor & it’s going to help prevent any type of longterm consequences.”
The Health Center offers access to various forms of birth control, as well as free condoms.
“The idea is that by increasing the access to free contraceptives we’re going to hopefully make a dent in the number of STDs,” Brown said.
Kavanaugh agrees that safe sex is important.
“Like, I don’t know anybody who wants an STI, but like I definitely don’t want an STI,” said Kavanaugh. “I’m not trying to risk the ability of becoming a father, especially at the age of 21, so like, I generally keep it as safe as possible.”