My first encounter with a STD occurred when I was a junior in high school. There was a guy that I had known since I was a freshman. We had been boyfriend and girlfriend off and on every since we had known each other. I finally broke down and decided to have sex with him. We used a condom, so the thought of a STD never came to my mind. But about a month later I noticed that I had been itching really bad "down there". I began to get worried and looked in a medical book, to try to see if I could diagnose the problem. According to the book, I had gotten crabs. I felt so disgusted. I went into my bathroom, and started looking through my pubic hair and found all kinds of little bugs. I wanted to scream. I did not want to go to the store to get any treatment for the crabs; I was just too embarrased. So in the course of the next few weeks, I picked out all of those little bugs, one by one, until they were all gone.
The second STD I had was given to me by another guy that I had known for a while. We lived in different states, and had had a long distance relationship for 2 years. He lived in Tennessee, the state I was born in, and I visited there frequently to see my relatives. I was in love with him. One summer when I was visiting my relatives, we had unprotected sex. For some reason, I bled really bad right afterward. I didn?t even bleed that bad when I had lost my virginity. But hey, I thought maybe he was just astud or something. After I got back home to Texas, I noticed that I had an unusual discharge. I thought I had a yeast infection. I went to the gynecologist, and she asked me a few questions. She thought I might have a STD. Well I took a test, and the results showed that I had chlamydia. Actually, I was lucky. 70% of all women, who have chlamydia, do not even know it. It rarely has symptoms. I then had the task of calling my man in Tennessee, and telling him that he needed to get tested for the disease. He didn?t believe me, since he was one of the many that do not have any symptoms. It was a tough conversation, but I think I finally convinced him to get tested.
The third STD that I had was the scarriest. It was gonorrhea. I had it for who knows how long. It is another disease that women may not have symptoms of. Let me explain. I met a guy, let?s call him Mann. Mann treated me right and we did things together all of the time. We were together for two months before he ever even tried to have sex with me. We saw each other on almost a daily basis, and I hung out with him and his friends all the time. Since he showed me so much respect, I quickly fell in love with him. When we did decide to have sex, it was August. I was on birth control, so I felt a condom was unneccessary. Well, we did it, and our relationship continued to grow. We contiunued to have a sexual relationship until we broke up in November. I then moved on with my life, and met someone else (my future husband). We fell in love and of course ended up having sex. The first few times we had sex, we used a condom. After a while, we decided that we no longer needed them, and had unprotected sex. Shortly after that, he began having symptoms of a STD. He went to the doctor, and was diagnosed with gonorrhea. He then informed me that I gave him gonorrhea, and I was somewhat in disbelief. I couldn?t believe that I had contracted another STD. The only conclusion that I could make was that Mann had given it to me. But when? It was now March, so that means that I had to have had the disease for at least 4 months, but more than likely I had it for 7 months without even knowing it. Had I have not given the disease to my new boyfriend, who knows how long I would have went without even knowing I had it. Moreover, if I had never found out, I could have eventually become steril.
I am writing this just to make you aware that STDs really are out there. Most of the people that spread the disease don?t know that they have the disease. I am lucky when you think about it. The disease I got were curable. I could have gotten herpes, or even worse AIDS. afterall, it takes a long time for people who have AIDS to develop symptoms of the disease. Just like the people who gave me those diseases probably didn?t have any symptoms.