STD education necessary for all

I have this friend at North Carolina State University…let's just call her Amy. She is a good girl, pretty decent student, great drinker, fun partier and an amazing friend. Amy has boyfriends sometimes, but mostly she just sees other males on the side, often more intimately than friendly. \nAmy has a problem, though; you see…she continues to be sexually intimate with partners without birth control and usually without condoms. "It just won't happen to me," she explains about the sexually transmitted diseases that I promise her will eventually raid her sexual life and scar her permanently.\nAmy is part of the ever-increasing group of college students, both male and female, who are unwilling to take responsibility for their open sexuality. Having sex is one thing, but having unprotected sex with multiple partners is a whole different ball game.\nBirth control pills do not protect against STDs. "I take Ortho-Cyclen" is not a valid excuse for not using condoms or having a partner checked for all STDs. Chlamydia, the most common STD around, doesn't have any symptoms. And, yes, the rumor is true: Having sex with anyone is like having sex with every person they've ever been intimate with.\nHow unsafe is it that many college students are willing to be intimate with people who often have over 20 sexual partners? \nIn a perfect world, every college student would get tested before and after any new partner. In this world, they wouldn't have as many partners as they do and sexuality would regain the intimacy and love that it is supposed to contain.\nWhere we are, as a generation, isn't anywhere near this perfect world.\nWe have Chlamydia that is present in 65 percent of people our age having sex with multiple partners. We have Genital Herpes, the STD that just won't go away, even with all the Valtrex in the United States. We even have HIV, which might not show up immediately, but down the road it will be deadly.\nInstead of becoming educated about all of the scary crabs and warts that can lurk down there, we are hiding from STDs, as if we keep postponing our testing and treatment, they will go away.\nThe problems with this are many in number. If you retain an STD without being treated, you will continue to pass it on to new partners. Many times the STD will also worsen and can cause permanent damage that immediate treatment could have prevented. If you leave Chlamydia untreated long enough, you can become infertile.\nIt is time that all of the Amys out there, both male and female, make a trip to the health center and get tested for everything, even HIV. It is only with education that we can slow down the STD monster that is grabbing our entire generation by its throat.\nIgnorance about STDs is not bliss. Don't become another STD statistic. Don't let yourself get the gift that keeps on giving for the rest of your life.\nIt is your responsibility to take control of your sexuality, take responsibility for your actions or decide that you are not mature enough to play the game of sexual intimacy at all.\nThe IU Health Center, 600 N. Jordan, may be reached at 855-4011.