Your STDs fears are overblown

SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED STIGMA transcript:

Hi I'm Jerome, creator of LTASEX.com. Welcome to Let’s Talk About Sex, the show where we talk about sex. It is soo good to be back and today were talking about why that's probably not an STD your dealing with.

Now, STD’s, I have experience with STD's. Last year… no… was it last year? No, shit it was 2 years ago that's how long I’ve been off YouTube, this is crazy. So, 2 years ago I thought I had oral gonorrhea, now this year I found out that it wasn't oral gonorrhea in fact it was just allergies.

For some reason in the middle of the spring, when everybody’s allergies are messing up, my tonsils decide to swell so big that I can barely breathe. They start pushing puss out of them every which way, it’s disgusting! Now, of course, when this happened to me 2 years ago, I made the video about how I caught oral gonorrhea. I thought that it was oral gonorrhea, that's what my doctor told me. I mean, I’d also just come from sucking a bunch of dicks at a sex club, so it was more likely than not that it was some sort of STI.

Knowing what I know now, though, what I'm realizing is that it was just fear that made me believe I had an STI. Now I know a bunch of people out there are probably experiencing the same thing, whether you’re a gay guy your like "Omg I have AIDS!", or you’re a girl and your like "OMG I have HPV!" and I'm going to die!"

The thing is: STDs are just diseases.

I get it in our culture STDs are these really big, scary things. If you get them people will make fun of you, they'll like laugh at you. You don't even want to go to the doctor and talk about them, but, like, in reality, when you think about what a STD is, it’s just a disease. Sure there are a few of these bad boys out there that are permanent like HPV, HIV, and Herpes, but you know what? All of those are treatable!

They’re no different than the flu, they‘re no different than cancer, or the common cold. That means you can get these infections or diseases and live a whole, full life. Most of the time people live, and not only do they live, but they thrive because diseases do not define us!

For most people even if you have a chronic disease, it is not what you identify with. For example, I have anxiety, depression, panic attacks, I have a curve in my spine, I have a bad knee, but you know what? I don't think of myself as a disabled person or a person who supposedly somehow worse or less capable in the world. I don't think because I have these things that people are going to shame me.

Now, I know specifically when it comes to the mental health things, people will shame me, but you know what fuck them! Even if my anxiety and depression was really herpes and gonorrhea you know what, if you’re going to judge me for that then fuck you too.

Here’s the thing, even if I do get an STD from hoe-ing around, you know what, I had fun. You know what else? I'm a fucking adult, and I can take care of whatever consequences come my way. Because I had sex with only the risks that I chose. If it just so happens that my "safety precautions" failed me one time, and I now have HIV, you know what? It happens.

I’ll inform my partners, I’ll go to my doctor, I’ll take my medication, and I’ll continue living my life. I’ll make sure that every partner I have is on PrEP. I’ll make sure that I take every precaution I can from spreading it. But you know what I won’t do? I won’t sit there. I won’t wallow and I won’t allow people to shame me, for a disease.

We live our entire lives in fear of what other people will think, it stops us from doing all sorts of wonderful things. Today I had a guy message me on Facebook and saw my video with my experience and he was terrified that after sucking some dick that he was somehow "sick." While I'm happy to be the one to dissuade his fears, I also don't want to have to do that. I know I keep bringing up the flu, but when people have the flu. nobody IMs me thinking that there a piece of shit because they got a disease. 

For goodness sake mono-nucleosols is an STD, it is something that you can get from sexual contact. Yet people get it all the time and no one cares, because at the end of the day it is just a disease, and our diseases do not define us. They are not who we are. They are not scarlet letters that say that I am a piece of shit human, because I had the misfortune of being gifted with the bacteria, or a virus. 

We’re covered and filled with various bacteria and viruses. The world is covered and filled with bacteria and viruses. It doesn't make sense to be so scared. Just because it doesn’t make sense, doesn't mean that were not all still terrified. Even still after I was proudly whoring around, that doesn't mean that I wasn't terrified that I caught an STD. It doesn't mean that millions of people a day are enjoying sex and then waking up the next morning terrified that they caught an STD.

Don't get me wrong, STDs are common. They are there. They are something that we get, like the flu, but you know what else? They are not a big deal. Even if right now you fear having an STD, and you really do have it, you can take your behind to the doctor. You can get treated, and you can live a happy, healthy life. But the fact of the matter is you probably don't have an STD. What you probably have is fear. And is something that we really, really need to handle.

Do you have stories about your experience with STDs or fake STDs, or STD scares? Feel free to share them with me: Jerome@ltasex.info

All right, that's about it for me today, Thanks again for watching! Once again I'm Jerome Stuart Nichols creator and resident Sexpert of LTASEX.com. You've been watching Lets Talk About Sex, thanks so much for watching. If you want to keep up with the show you can do that at LTASEX.com, you can follow me on Twitter: @notjeromestuart. You can also follow LTASEX on twitter: @ltasexblog. If you want to support more awesome content like. GODDAMMIT! Everything is falling apart and I hate it! If you want to get more awesome content like this, think about supporting me on Patreon at : Patreon.com/keepitsexy. For more awesome content like this make sure to check out LTASEX.com. Once again thank you so much for your time. I'm still Jerome Stuart Nichols, this is still Lets Talk About Sex, and as always. Keep it sexy!

Guess who’s back, back again, Romey’s back, tell a friend, guess who’s back, guess who’s back, guess who’s back, guess who’s back! Yeah! I'm back, son.