STDs & STIs
Overview
About STDs & STIs
As a gynecologist, Dr. McIlhaney witnessed the heartbreak caused by sexually transmitted infections (STIs) almost daily during his career. In fact, Medical Institute for Sexual Health was founded out of his heart’s cry to do more than just treat with compassion the women who continued to come in for his help. Still today, he desires to reach out to more and more people, especially young people, in kindness, with the truth about STIs, the life-altering and often irreversible consequences they can bring, and how much better life can be if they can be avoided.
Through this website, we hope to educate, encourage, and offer hope and guidance to anyone seeking to find their way through the “noise” of multiple messages to help in making wise decisions about sexual behavior. According to the CDC, one in five people in the U.S. currently has an STI, and more than half of all new STIs occur in young people under the age of 25 years old. We are talking about a high-risk sexual environment today that teens and young adults are trying to navigate. We are not trying to make people feel guilty about past decisions, because life is not over from one wrong choice. However, we do want to hold out a hand to people and warn them of the results of destructive choices, as well as help those who have already suffered consequences of such choices to start making life-fulfilling choices.
You may be thinking, “if so many people have STIs, then what is the big deal? As long as I get tested and treated, won’t everything be okay?” Certainly, there are people who have had an active sex life and have seemed to have escaped the serious consequences of STIs/STDs. However, some consequences, such as cancer caused by the HPV virus, may not show up for twenty years or more. The information presented in this section is not intended as a “scare tactic” to cause people to fear relationships. Rather, it is a guide to help every individual make the best sexual behavioral choices and live a life with as minimal amount of “baggage” as possible.
Where the
Research Leads
What You Can Do
Stay informed on the sexual health epidemic, its economic effects, and contributing factors to advocate for reforms that promote lifestyles that reduce the risk of STIs.
Teach students the realities of STI risks, including asymptomatic infections and long-term complications.
Encourage testing where appropriate and stress the protective benefits of delaying sexual activity.
Offer free STI testing and awareness education that normalizes risk avoidance behaviors.
Further Reading
