How You Can Prevent Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Get the Facts

Arm yourself with basic information about STDs: How are these diseases spread?

How can you protect yourself?

What are the treatment options?

Learn the answers to these questions by reading the STD information

Take Control

Protect yourself and your sexual partners. Effective strategies for reducing STD risk include:

Abstinence: The most reliable way to avoid infection is to not have sex (i.e., anal, vaginal or oral).

Vaccination – Mutual monogamy – Reduced number of sex partners – Condoms

What can people do to reduce their risk of getting STDs and HIV?

The only way to avoid STDs is to not have vaginal, anal, or oral sex. If people are sexually active, they can do the following things to lower their chances of getting STDs and HIV:

Choose less risky sexual behaviors;
Use condoms consistently and correctly;
Reduce the number of people with whom they have sex;
Limit or eliminate drug and alcohol use before and during sex;
Have an honest and open talk with their healthcare provider and ask whether they should be tested for STDs and HIV.
Talk with their healthcare provider and find out if pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, is a good option for them to prevent HIV infection.
Find STD Clinics

Sexually transmitted diseases affect individuals of all ages

Find an STD testing site near you

Young people account for a substantial proportion of new STis

%

Gonorrhea

%

Chlamydia

%

HPV

%

Genital Herpes

%

HIV

%

Syphilis

SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS AMONG YOUNG AMERICANS

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Youth bear disproportionate share of STis

Americans ages 15 – 24 make up just 27% of the sexually active population

But account for the 50% of the 20M new STIs in the U.S. each year.

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Many do not know they're infected

STIs often have no symptoms. Be sure to ask your healthcare provider to test you for STDs — asking is the only way to know whether you are receiving the right tests

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Unique factors place youth at risk

Insufficient screening: Many young woman don’t get tested for chlamydia
Confidentiality concern: Many are reductant to disclose risk behaviors to Doctors.
Biology: Young woman bodies are biologically more susceptible to STIs.
Lack of access to healthcare :Youth often lack of insurance and transportation needed.
Multiple Sex Partners : Many young people have multiple partners increasing the risk of STIs.

Gonorrhea Diagnosed and reported 35.08% 35.08%
Chlamydia Diagnosed and reported 55.5% 55.5%

Undiagnosed STIs cause 24.000 Woman to become infertile in the US each year

Data are cases amoung youth ages 15-24

The estimated total new infection for gonorrhea among young are 570.000 each year only 200.000 are diagnosed and reported.

The estimated total new infection for Chlamydia among young are 1.8 million and only 1 million is diagnosed and reported.

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