One week ago, Mr. Zhang accompanied a client to a sauna massage. Two days later, he felt very uncomfortable in the lower body, with a significant increase in urethral secretions, a tingling sensation at the end of urination, and a constant feeling of incomplete urination. He thought it was a recurrence of prostatitis, so he bought medicine according to the prescription given by the doctor before. After a week of taking the medicine, the symptoms did not improve. He suspected he might have contracted a sexually transmitted disease and decided to go to the hospital if there was no improvement. That night, after taking a shower, his wife snuggled up to him. Thinking back to the past few days, he had been using fatigue as an excuse to reject his wife. He realized that if he avoided her today, he might be suspected of having an affair, so he mustered up the courage to be affectionate with his wife.
The next day, he still felt uncomfortable, so he went to the urology department of the hospital. The test results showed a positive result for gonorrhea, confirming the diagnosis of gonorrhea. While the doctor prescribed medication, he advised Mr. Zhang to bring his sexual partner along. Mr. Zhang forced a bitter smile and said to the doctor, “I am single.” In fact, he was extremely anxious, thinking about how to approach his wife. If he revealed the truth, a quarrel was inevitable, and divorce was a possibility. Caught in a dilemma, he finally decided that if she felt unwell, he would bring her to see the doctor.
After observing for 4-5 days, his wife surprisingly had no discomfort. Could this be a stroke of luck that she was not infected? Two weeks later, Mr. Zhang felt that he had recovered, but to his surprise, the previous symptoms reappeared after being intimate with his wife.
Keywords: failure to disclose
Healthy couples should be a “clean land.” Regardless of the methods or protection measures taken, sexually transmitted diseases do not arise out of nothing. The main source of sexually transmitted diseases lies in extramarital sexual activities, which account for over 95% of the total incidence rate, especially unprotected activities after one party is infected. In many countries, including China, men have more sexual partners than women, and there is a greater tolerance towards men having multiple partners and extramarital affairs, putting themselves, and subsequently their partners, at risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
Sexual diseases are closely related to culture and morality. Patients with sexually transmitted diseases may fear social stigma, discrimination, or disrupt family harmony if they disclose their condition to their spouses. This behavior poses a significant threat to the partner’s health, as even if they voluntarily abstain from intercourse, transmission can still occur through contact, saliva, blood, among other means.
Keywords: lack of awareness
During sexual intercourse, as the recipient of bodily fluids, women are more susceptible to pathogens remaining in their bodies, making men more likely to infect women than vice versa. Women’s vaginas are spacious and produce various secretions, with minor lesions often overlooked or mistaken for normal discharge, leading to more cases of hidden infections in women. These hidden infections are a crucial factor in the recurrence of sexually transmitted diseases post-treatment, as pathogens are passed back and forth between partners like playing ping pong.
Some people believe that washing with soap or disinfectants after engaging in risky sexual behavior can protect them from sexually transmitted diseases. However, there is no medical evidence to support this practice, and the improper use of local antimicrobial agents can increase resistance to gonorrhea and other pathogens, as well as pose a risk of allergic reactions.
Taking broad-spectrum antibiotics before or after sexual activities may have some preventive effects against sexually transmitted infections. However, due to the variety of sexually transmitted diseases, indiscriminate antibiotic use can lead to pathogen resistance, making treatment difficult, and potentially increasing the number of asymptomatic carriers. Therefore, this preventive method is not recommended.
Keywords: dissatisfaction
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the rate of sexually transmitted infections among the elderly, with reports showing a 17-fold increase in the number of elderly patients with sexually transmitted diseases in Beijing compared to seven years ago. The main reason for this surge is that many elderly individuals enjoy better health conditions now, have more open attitudes towards sexual activities than before, and their wives have gone through menopause, leading them to seek extramarital affairs. Elderly men have lower purchasing power, often engaging with older sex workers who may have poor hygiene conditions. Elderly individuals have less resilient mucous membranes, making them more susceptible to infections and subsequently passing them on to their spouses. Of course, similar phenomena can also be observed among some young couples.
