STD, Major Cause Of Infertility – Expert

A Public health physician, Dr. Idowu Justus, has said that Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) constitute a major cause of infertility and sterility as well as frequent ill-health among men and women.
Speaking to The Tide during a chat in Port Harcourt, Monday, Justus said that venereal diseases or sexually transmitted diseases were contracted by intimate contact particularly when having more than one partner adding that it causes urinary tract problems, sterility in women, prostatic inflammation in men and loss of money in the family due to treatment of ill-health.
Justus said “We are living in an STD health crisis and it is rapidly increasing every year. At the present, one teenage girl in four has an STD. some of these diseases can kill newborn babies leaving the mothers at the risk of death depending on the extent and period it has lasted”.
Justus revealed the symptoms of STDs to include blisters around the vagina, burning sensation when urinating, anal pain, itching, pelvic inflammation, penile discharge, sore throat, flu-like symptoms among others, maintaining that more than 80 per cent of the people are having one or more of these symptoms and stressed the need for medical checks, diagnosis and treatment.
The expert noted that people who smoke or chew tobacco were three times  likely to contract an STD adding that oral contraceptives also increase the STD risk.
“They do this by decreasing levels of key nutrients within the body. Because of their imbalancing estrogen content, they also increase the likelihood of precancerous lescons”, he said.
He continued, “Many STDs are increasing due to the fact that the AIDS epidemic weakens the immune system and reduces resistance to many diseases”.
While cautioning that condoms do not guarantee protection against any sexually transmitted disease even AIDS, one of the worst killer diseases of all, Justus said “strong doses of antibiotics are the usual medical treatment but an increasing amount of drug resistance is occurring among patients”.
The physician who listed the diseases as Chlamydia, genital herpes, Trichomoniasis, syphillis, AIDS, gonorrhea, genital warts, candichasis and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) said “the only genuine protection is abstinence. Marry a person who never has and never will have sex with another during your life time and afterwards, both of you remain faithful to each other to the end”.

Lady Godknows Ogbulu