• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

An Alarming Number Of People Don’t Disclose When They Have An STI

June 6, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Here’s a statistic that might surprise you: around one in five people in the US have a sexually transmitted infection at any one time. There’s nothing wrong or shameful about that – in this age of modern medicine, many are curable and all are treatable – but if you have one, you at least ought to know about it, right?

Advertisement

That’s one reason why the results of a new analysis – a critical literature review some 32 papers strong from researchers at the University of Tennessee – are so worrying. According to their results, only around one-half of people who have an STI actually mention it to a prospective sexual partner. 

Advertisement

In fact, only about one-half of people think they should even have to say anything.

“STI cases continue to rise annually, yet the STI disclosure literature published across the last two decades has not kept pace,” the authors write. Which is a problem – because, of course, “sexual partners […] face increased susceptibility for contracting the STI(s), if they did not already have the STI(s) and were not the individuals who transmitted it initially.”

Now, perhaps you’re aghast at the one in ten people who are apparently knowingly risking others’ health in order to continue getting their rocks off – and it’s true that in some cases, “it’s just a one-night stand” was deemed reason enough to not come clean. 

But the overall picture is more nuanced than that, the authors found: “many individuals are not receiving sufficient comprehensive sexual health education,” they write. 

Advertisement

And the culprit? Our old friend abstinence-only sex education: “Rather than being taught how to correctly use prophylaxis, identify its limitations, and understand the scope and transmissibility of STIs, youth are only encouraged to be abstinent,” the researchers explain.

That’s right: not only is it bad for your mental health, useless for stopping sex before marriage, and downright counterproductive for reducing teen pregnancies, it turns out abstinence-only sex “education” has rendered many completely ignorant of important sexual health knowledge. For example, the researchers found that many STI-positive people were under the impression that sexual activity was only risky if they were experiencing symptoms: “Many believed, especially in the case of herpes, that being asymptomatic, STI dormancy, and using prophylaxis were enough to completely prevent transmission, and this negated the necessity for them to disclose,” they noted.

But of course, that’s not true. “Although the likelihood of the transmission of herpes is decreased when asymptomatic and using prophylaxis, it is still possible,” cautions the paper. The same is true of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasis, all of which can be spread without the presence of symptoms or even semen, and all of which featured heavily in the responses to various studies in the review (the most common conditions were herpes and HPV, while HIV was excluded from consideration.)

Outside of simply lacking the relevant knowledge, there are other factors at play when it comes to disclosing – or not – an STI-positive status. “For some individuals, it may not be the safest decision to make,” the authors point out; for others, the psychological baggage that comes with a diagnosis is simply too great: “For many, the sexual self is ‘damaged’ upon diagnosis,” they write, “and these deeply meaningful, symbolic processes certainly influence disclosure decision-making.”

Advertisement

So, what’s the solution? According to the researchers, a massive change in sex education is needed. 

“The findings from this review highlight individuals’ gaps in sexual health knowledge,” they write. “This is not surprising, particularly in the United States, as comprehensive sex education remains taboo, rather than the norm.”

That’s not just a job for schools, they add: healthcare providers, especially those who deal directly with people learning their STI-positive status, should be involved too. “The advice that practitioners may give patients will vary depending on the type of STI, which can also inform disclosure-efficacy coaching. This would be an opportunity to provide counseling about how to notify their current partner and deliver treatment, encourage routine testing, and discuss disclosure strategies should future instances arise,” the authors suggest. “Regardless of the type of STI, patients could be referred to more in-depth counseling services, if necessary, to process the diagnosis and develop strategies for disclosure, should they decide to do so.”

And underpinning all of this? Destigmatization – both of having an STI, and of sexual activity itself. 

Advertisement

“Providing individuals with accurate sexual health knowledge, ample opportunities for testing and treatment, and helping them build confidence in their sexual decision-making is paramount,” the researchers conclude.

“Each person interested in pursuing sexual activity with another, regardless of whether they have an STI, should feel empowered to facilitate conversations about their sexual health and wellness with others, including conversations about consent, contraception, preferred sexual behaviors, sexual histories and STI status.”

The review is published in The Journal of Sex Research.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Events leading up to the trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes
  2. “Man Of The Hole”: Last Known Member Of Uncontacted Amazon Tribe Has Died
  3. This Is What Cannabis Looks Like Under A Microscope – You Might Be Surprised
  4. Will Lake Mead Go Back To Normal In 2024?

Source Link: An Alarming Number Of People Don't Disclose When They Have An STI

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • DNA Evidence Uncovers Surprising Origins Of Native Americans
  • Single Gene Swap “Transfers A Behavior” Between Two Species For The First Time
  • Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Has A Rare “Anti-Tail”, New Observations Confirm
  • Asteroid Apophis: Animation Shows Asteroid’s Nail-Biting Close Approach To Earth In 2029
  • Titan Breaks A Key Chemistry Rule: What That Means For Alien Life
  • Scientists Studied “Chicago Rat Hole” – They Have Bad News, The South Atlantic’s Magnetic Field Weak Spot Is Growing, And Much More This Week
  • Could This Be The Real Reason Humans Survived And Neanderthals Died Out?
  • Newly Discovered Snail Species Named After Studio Ghibli Co-Founder Is A Hairy Beauty
  • 2025 SC79 Is The Second-Fastest Asteroid Ever Found – And Only The Second Within Venus’ Orbit
  • When Red Devil Spiders Arrived On A New Island, Their Genome Dramatically Shrank In Half
  • Is This The World’s Oldest Story? Ancient Human Tale About The Seven Sisters May Be From 100,000 BCE
  • This Pill Is Actually A Tiny Printer That Repairs Internal Injuries Using Biocompatible Ink
  • “This Is Amazing”: Scientists Have Found Evidence Of A Long-Lost World Deep Within The Earth
  • From The Shiniest World To Lava And Eternal Darkness, These Are The Weirdest Known Planets
  • Do Sharks Have Bones?
  • The Zombie Awakens: A Volcano Is Showing “First Signs” Of Unrest After 700,000 Years Of Quiet
  • Two Of The World’s Biggest Earthquakes Seem To Be Synched Together
  • California Has A New State Snake, And It’s A 1.6-Meter-Long Giant
  • Experimental Nanoparticle “Super-Vaccines” Stop Breast, Pancreatic, And Skin Cancers In Their Tracks
  • New Nightmare Fuel Unlocked: Watch The First Known Capture Of A Shrew By A False Widow Spider
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version