How Can You Tell If Someone Is Infected?

Teens are very accustomed to having adults provide solutions.  For instance, they will often ask us, “How can you tell if someone is infected with an STD?”  They are expecting a quick-fix, and the answer they get from most adults is, “Get tested.”  But it’s not an ACCURATE answer. 

Does getting tested mean you KNOW if you or your partner are infected?  Not exactly. 

• What if they are infected with Herpes, but they weren’t tested for Herpes?
• What if they ARE infected, but the marker the test is looking for takes a period of time to develop and they were tested too soon?
• What if they had sex with someone AFTER the test, but before they got their results?

In each case, someone could be infected and a test wouldn’t show it.  This unknown can be paralyzing for teens, so adults can help them process by comparing their risk to something else, such as avoiding the flu.

“How can you tell if someone has the flu?”

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1. They might be coughing, sneezing, nauseous or feverish.  BUT, what if they have taken AlkaSeltzer Cold & Flu so they’re symptoms are masked? 
   
2. They say they have the flu, but that they don’t think they’re contagious.  Can a person tell if they are contagious?
3. They tell you they got a flu shot.  But what if their flu shot was more than a year ago, or there is a new type of flu going around that the previous flu shot doesn’t work on?

We don’t want to produce germaphobes, we just want them to take as few risks as possible during its flu season.  That’s why we say: Wash your hands a lot.  Don’t drink from the same cup.  Don’t  use someone else’s lip balm.  Sanitize heavily used surfaces.  Eat healthy, stay hydrated, get lots of rest.

Assuming teens could both remember and apply all those directions 100% perfectly, does that mean they will NEVER get the flu?  No, but their risk would be much less.

Next, you can demonstrate how to apply the “reduce your risk” protocols to sexually transmitted infections.  The conversation between two prospective lovers might go something like this:

I’m planning to have multiple sexual partners in my lifetime, and I don’t want to get infected, so this is what I need you to agree to if we are going to have sex. 

The first thing is you cannot have any sexual contact AT ALL for at least 3 months.  After 3 months, we will go get a full STD screen (blood, urine, scraping samples will be taken.)  Prior to any sexual contact, we will both wash thoroughly with strong soap, being careful to not scratch, abrade or tear the skin, so no direct portals to the bloodstream are opened.

We will be using condoms and birth control, but any sexual activity between us would have to avoid contact with uncovered skin in the genital area, or the mouth.  Immediately after sex, we will both urinate.  Then we will repeat the full panel STD screen, after having NO sexual contact AT ALL for 3-6 months.

We will keep this up until one or both of us gets bored, interested in someone else, or otherwise decides to move on to another partner. 

Wanna be my bae?

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