There are many myths and misconceptions regarding Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) that help to compound the issues of STD prevention and treatment. Many of these misconceptions are simply due to lack of information, or access to information about STDs. The Palm Beach County Health Department maintains a website with information about STD testing and prevention. As noted on their website, often when individuals suspect that they may have an STD, the common human reflex is to keep it a secret, to wait and hope that the symptoms just go away. Nothing could prove more harmful than an untreated STD infection.

However, this could not be further from the truth. Within the United States unprotected oral sex is now the leading cause of oral cancers. In the past oral cancers were usually seen in older individuals who were pre-disposed to oral cancers due to a lifetime of lifestyle choices such as heavy smoking and drinking. Now, the demographics have dramatically shifted to include teenagers. More teens are developing oral cancers, not from heavy smoking and drinking, but due to unprotected oral sex.  This activity exposes them to the Human Papillomavirus (HPV).  The Human Papillomavirus is a sexually transmitted infection that is easily spread during unprotected oral sex, and can lead to oral cancers.

Therefore, educating teenagers in particular about the potential dangers of contracting STDs like HPV can go a long way in helping to prevent the spread of these infections and the devastating complications that may result. In addition to education about safe sex, teens should be encouraged to resist peer pressure to have sex in the first place. Whether it is oral sex, or sexual intercourse, remaining above the influence and abstaining from sex is still okay and it doesn’t make you “weird”. In fact it might just save your life.

Not only are you potentially exposing yourself to more severe complications such as sterility, possible neurological damage to unborn children (for women), and even dementia, but you are also potentially putting loved ones at risk of contracting the untreated STD.

In the case of some STDs such as Gonorrhea, genetic evolution is producing more drug-resistant strains of these pathogens.   This means that unlike previous years where an STD diagnosis might mean a few short week of antibiotics therapy, more and more of these sexually transmitted infections are untreatable with even the most powerful antibiotics that are available. Therefore, educating yourself about how to prevent STDs in the first place is paramount. This is a very important issue that needs to be addressed with our youth.

Adolescents are particularly vulnerable to STDs due to lack of education. One example of where lack of education and misconceptions are leading to dramatic increased incidences of STD-related diseases in adolescents is that of oral sex and the development of oral cancers.  Many young persons are under the misconception that oral sex isn’t sex, and that you can’t get STDs from just giving or receiving unprotected oral sex.