Get Your GYT On!

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We use a lot of resources from the GYT (Get Yourself Tested) site, sponsored by MTV and CDC.  This is especially true during STD Awareness Month, which is rapidly coming to a close.  One fairly new item on the site is the GYT Party!   Rest assured, this is not a political party.  It is an interactive website, where you hang out, get some information, and listen in on some cool conversations.   You might even learn something!! 

So, come on, join us at the Party!

GYT PARTY

Good Health! 

Roger Miller, MD (OSU Student Health)

Q: I’ve been exposed! When should I get my STD test?

Get Yourself Tested

Use protection

APRIL is STD AWARENESS MONTH

Students come in on occasion with immediate concerns about STDs, especially after an unprotected sex act, or one in which the protection failed.  Their questions?

  • What STDs could I have gotten last night?
  • When would I get symptoms if infected?
  • How soon can I be tested to know that I’m ok?
  • Can I spread this to another sex partner?
  • When is Emergency Contraception needed, if there is a pregnancy risk?

These are excellent questions, and require some discussion with a healthcare provider.  The reason is that STDs can vary from a few days to several months or more in terms of INCUBATION.  INCUBATION means the time needed from exposure to infection.  Getting tested immediately (or the next morning) may be too early to find the bug when it is first growing, but can tell us about your past risks. 

While testing may need to be delayed or repeated, treatment is often given right after exposure, if a partner is known to be infected with an STD.  This is called EMPIRIC treatment for an exposed partner, and can prevent an STD before it starts.

Final points –

  • While we will strive to address all your concerns on the first visit, there will likely still be some unknowns at the end of your visit.  We will establish a treatment and testing plan that is best suited to your needs.
  • Protection is Prevention if used consistently and carefully.  Most condoms fail because of user errors. 
  • Student Health Services is your healthcare provider in the heart of campus.  Come see us for our caring and expertise.   

Good Health!

Roger Miller, MD  (OSU Student Health)

Have you been asked the Five P’s??? – April is STD Awareness Month

Wilce Student Health Center

GYT - Make your appointment!

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Lets say you are going to Student Health or your private caregiver.  In most cases, they are going to ask you a few questions about your sexual health and sexual practices. These questions are very personal, but they are as important as the questions about other areas of physical and mental health. Your answers are kept in strict confidence. 

So, are you ready to talk about your five P’s?  The five “P”s stand for Partners, Practices, Protection from STDs, Past history of STDs, and Prevention of pregnancy.

Partners

  • Are you currently sexually active? (Are you having sex?)
  • In the past 12 months, how many sex partners have you had?
  • Are your sex partners men, women, or both?

Practices

  • What kind of sexual contact do you have or have you had?
  • Genital (penis in the vagina), Anal (penis in the anus), Oral (mouth on penis, vagina, or anus)?

Protection from STDs

  • Do you and your partner(s) use any protection against STDs? If not, why?  If so, what kind”
  • How often do you use this protection? If “sometimes,” in what situations or with whom do you use protection?
  • Are there other forms of protection that you would like to discuss today?

Past history of STD’s

  • Have you ever been diagnosed with an STD?
  • Have you had any recurring symptoms or diagnoses?
  • Have you ever been tested for HIV, or other STDs? Would you like to be tested?
  • Has your current partner or any former partners ever been diagnosed or treated for an STD?

Prevention of pregnancy (Based on partners noted earlier, conception and contraception questions may be appropriate)

  • Are you currently trying to conceive or father a child?
  • Are you concerned about getting pregnant or getting your partner pregnant?
  • Are you using contraception or practicing any form of birth control?
  • Do you need any information on birth control?

Finally, before you move on to discuss other things with your caregiver, consider:

  • Are there other things about your sexual health and sexual practices that you should discuss to help ensure your good health?
  • Any other concerns or questions regarding sexual health in general?

Student Health Services can offer you expert advice, all the current diagnostic and treatment options, and vaccinations that can protect you long term.  Come see us, and GET YOURSELF TESTED

But what if I WANT to get pregnant?

truehealthmedicine.com

We spend a lot of time helping students figure out how to avoid getting pregnant, but there are a fair number of Lady Buckeyes out there who are ready to start planning a family, and they need good information too!  So in the spirit of fair play, here is a checklist of things you should do if you’re planning to get pregnant.

  • Be sure your vaccinations are up to date, especially MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella), Varicella (chickenpox) and Hepatitis B. Your unborn child can be harmed if you contract these infections while you are pregnant. These vaccines are part of the standard childhood immunization schedule, but you can make an appointment with Student Health Preventive Medicine to check your immunity if you aren’t sure whether you received them.
  • If you haven’t received a tetanus shot within the last 10 years, you should receive the Tdap (Tetanus-Diptheria-Pertussis) vaccine.
  • If you have any chronic health conditions, be sure to see your primary health care provider so she can review your medications and make sure your conditions are under optimal control.
  • Schedule a GYN exam. This will give your health care provider a chance to assess your overall health status, screen you for sexually transmitted infections, review your health and family history, and give you proper guidance for pregnancy planning.
  • Stop your birth control at least 3 months before you are planning to get pregnant. If you’ve been taking birth control pills, a pill-free break will allow you to go through several normal cycles before you conceive, which will make it easier to determine when ovulation occurred and to accurately estimate your due date. Your fertility may return to normal as early as two weeks after you stop taking the pill. If you are using Depo Provera, it may take several months for fertility to return.
  • Basal Body Temperature charting is a very useful tool for couples trying to conceive because of its ability to confirm ovulation. You need to use a basal thermometer, which is different than a regular thermometer. You can get them at most pharmacies.
  • Quit smoking, alcohol and recreation drugs.
  • Try to reach a healthy weight. Being overweight or underweight can make things more difficult before and during pregnancy. Ideally, your Body Mass Index (BMI) should be between 19 and 25. Check out this BMI calculator to figure out your BMI.
  • Try to eat a healthy and balanced diet. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, you may need to add a Vitamin B12 supplement to your diet. Be sure to discuss this with your healthcare provider.
  • Start an exercise program now, even if it is just walking every day. You should aim for a goal of 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week.
  • Start taking a prenatal vitamin that contains 400 mcg of Folic Acid at least 3 months before you are planning to get pregnant. Folic acid deficiency can cause birth defects. These vitamins are available over-the-counter so you don’t need a prescription for them.
  • Avoid consuming a lot of fish, especially swordfish, tilefish, king mackerel and shark. These fish contain methyl mercury, which can harm the nervous system of your unborn child. You can eat up to 12 ounces a week of a variety of fish and shellfish, such as shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, Pollock and catfish. The FDA has a great website that tells you what foods to avoid during pregnancy.
  • Avoid raw and undercooked meat, unwashed fruits and vegetables, and dirty cat-litter boxes. All of these things can be infected with Toxoplasmosis gondii, which is harmful to your unborn baby. If you don’t have a cat, don’t get one. If you do, have someone else change the litter box, or at the very least wear disposable gloves and wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water immediately afterwards. Be sure to wear gloves when gardening.
  • If you or your partner work in an environment where you are exposed to X-rays, lead, mercury or chemicals, you should take extra precautions at work or explore options for moving to a different area. You can check out Ohio State’s Environment Health & Safety office if you have any questions about safety or hazards in your work place.

Li-Chun Liu, MSN
Student Health Services
The Ohio State University

How to check on your pee

buzzle.com

Order-It-Yourself Testing

The Student Health Center

Q: I am a first year transfer student at OSU, and new to your services. I was wondering if you offer urine screenings?

A: Thanks for your question.  The answer depends on what type of urine screening is desired.  We do three types of urine screening as “OIY (Order-It-Yourself)” tests –

  • drug abuse screens
  • gonorrhea/chlamydia testing
  • pregnancy tests

These are all at your own cost.  For more information on OIY, check out Order-It-Yourself (OIY) Testing at our Student Health web site.  The web site also has a lot of other information, such as our location, hours, and a calendar of events.

If you are interested in some other type of urine screening, you should consider making an appointment with a healthcare provider for an evaluation and discussion of your concerns.  If you see one of our providers, we can order your test right away, and most appointments are available either the same day or within a few days. 

Wish to see a provider outside of Student Health?  Our laboratory can still process most lab orders, if you bring in or the provider sends us a written request. 

Hope this answers your question.  You may also wish to call our Advice/Appointments area (614) 292-4321 and discuss your concerns with our Advice Nurse.

Good Health!

Roger Miller, MD, (OSU Student Health Services) 

Can you learn about safe sex from porn movies?

Men's Services

photo: tbdhu.com

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CNN Health recently ran an interesting story about efforts in Los Angeles to pass a law requiring the use of condoms in all adult films produced in the city.  Safer sex advocates hope that seeing condoms used in these films may help to make them more acceptable to the public.  

But will it?  Is a message that encourages a positive health behavior more likely to be received if its delivered within a fictionalized story (and believe me guys, porn moves are fiction with a capial “F”) as opposed to a news report or public service announcement?

It’s a good question, and one that a professor right here at Ohio State tried to answer last year in a research study published in the journal Human Communication Research.  Emily Moyer-Gusé and her colleague at UC Santa Barbara (go Banana Slugs!), Robin Nabi, compared how college-aged participants responded to televised messages regarding unprotected sex and the risk for unintended pregnancy. 

Their findings?

  • Presenting this information in a news format, with interviews with young people coping with an unexpected pregnancy, had LITTLE EFFECT on the participants’ likelihood to use birth control.
  • Presenting the same information in a dramatic setting (in this case, an episode of the TV show “The OC”) led the female subjects to commit to taking action to prevent pregnancies in the future.
  • The male subjects, on the other hand, were actually LESS LIKELY to take action after watching the drama.

The researchers surmised that the women were more emotionally in touch with the characters in the TV drama so the show’s message had more impact, while the men may have been turned off by the storyline and therefore less receptive to the health message.

But can porn movies teach anybody anything about the realities of sex?  I doubt it.  Guys have never exactly paid too much attention to their storylines, so I’m guessing that adding condoms to the prop department won’t do that much to promote the cause of safe sex.  Hopefully I’m wrong.

But in the meantime, always wear a condom regardless of what you see onscreen.  Your risk of getting an STD is even higher than the risk of pregnancy without one, and you could probably do without either situation in your life right now. 

If you are having unprotected sex, be sure to call Student Health to come in and Get Yourself Tested.

Roger Miller, MD (OSU Student Health Services)

When it comes to “perfect” sex, timing is everything!

menstrual-cycle.info

My doctor put me on an antibiotic for a sore throat, and the pharmacist warned me that it is going to interfere with my birth control pills.  Two of my sorority sisters said they use “pulling out” whenever they need extra protection.  Does this really work?  And should I worry about the antibiotic making my pills less effective?

These are two great questions!  Let’s knock out the easy one first – do antibiotics interfere with birth control pills?

We covered this question in detail a few months ago, but the short answer is that as long as you’re taking your pills at the same time every day (give or take 2 hours) then back-up contraception shouldn’t be necessary.  If you’re having problems taking your pills consistently because of your illness – your sore throat is so severe that you can’t swallow them, or you’re vomiting and having diarrhea to the point that your body can’t absorb them, then you should use some back-up protection just in case. 

Now, on to the question of whether withdrawing the penis from the vagina before ejaculation (“pulling out,” “the withdrawal method,” “coitus interruptus”) will prevent pregnancy. 

Whenever we talk about the effectiveness of any form of birth control, we look at two very important statistics: annual pregnancy rates during typical use and during perfect use.

Perfect use is where everything works according to plan and instructions: you never miss a pill; you use a condom every time and nothing slips off or breaks; your boyfriend pulls out in time, every time. 

But as we all know, life ain’t perfect.  So we also look at the typical use rates of pregnancy – how effective the method is in the real world, where condoms slip and pills get skipped and guys forget to retreat.

For women counting on the withdrawal method alone, 4% will become pregnant each year with perfect use while 27% will become pregnant each year with typical use.  To give you a comparison, 2% of women using condoms alone will become pregnant with perfect use while 15% will become pregnant with typical use. 

As you can see, the withdrawal method isn’t very good.  It puts tremendous pressure on the male partner.  He has to be able to reliably tell when he’s going to ejaculate and have the control to pull out.  This is difficult under the best conditions; throw in extenuating circumstances like alcohol or drug consumption and it gets even harder (no pun intended).  

The big question you have to ask yourself is, “What would a pregnancy mean to my life”?  If it is not an option, then make sure to take your pills consistently, keep a box of condoms close by and forget about withdrawal.  Or better yet – tell your boyfriend to get you some hot soup and himself a cold shower.  You need to take it easy until you feel better!

Beth Askue, MS, CNP
Student Health Services
The Ohio State University

Buckeyes Head to Head with the Gators

photo: www.scottcounseling.com

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Health.com

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The Buckeyes and Gators meet today at the Gator Bowl. This is a great time to see how a Buckeye compares to a Gator in some of the dimensions of health that are studied by our colleagues at the OSU Student Wellness Center

Substance abuse – How many students have used prescription drugs not prescribed for them in the past 12 months?

          OSU = 15.6%           UF = 19.9%

Unhealthy Eating – how many students report their weight being outside the healthy weight range (Body Mass Index 18.5-24.9)?

          OSU = 37.2%           UF = 32.9%

Sexual Health – how many students report having had no sexual partners in the past 12 months?

          OSU = 27.3%           UF = 29.1%

Stress – how many students report having felt so depressed that it was difficult to function anytime in the past 12 months?

          OSU = 30.4%           UF = 29.4%

These few snapshots of our campuses show how similar we are with our esteemed opponents. That is why our student health and student wellness programs are so important.  Come see us for advice to make your lifestyle a healthier one. 

GO BUCKS!!

Roger Miller, MD  (OSU Student Health Services)

Sources:  

OSU: http://slra.osu.edu/posts/documents/exec-summary.pdf

UF: http://healthygators.ufsa.ufl.edu/surveys/healthy-gators-student-survey/healthy-gators-student-survey-2010-findings

OSU Researcher gets Savage about HPV and throat cancer!

Dan Savage

Dan Savage is a journalist and advocate for LGBT rights who writes a syndicated relationship and sex advice column called Savage Love.  Last year, he started the internet-based It Gets Better project, whose goal is to prevent suicide among LGBT youth by having gay adults convey the message that these teens’ lives will improve.  He’s gotten multiple celebriteis to post a video message, including President Barack Obama.

Dan came to Ohio State in October where he he met Dr. Theodoros Teknos, Director of the Division of Head and Neck Surgery at the Arther G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.  They struck up a conversation about Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) – it’s relationship to oral sex and throat cancer risk, the vaccines that are available to prevent it, and what you need to know to keep yourself healthy.  

Dan interviewed Dr. Teknos for this week’s installment of his podcast, Savage Love Episode 270.  You should check it out; not only is the talk with Dr. Teknos really good but later on, Dan checks in with a gay college student who is dealing with coming out, suicide attempts, and being cut off by his family.

Just to warn you, Dan’s podcasts and columns are based on two main ingredients – his political views, and very frank discussions of sexuality in all of its varied forms.  They can be pretty strong and may not be to your taste.  But even if you don’t agree with everything he says, you can still learn something from the guy.  After all, he figured out that the best students and researchers in the world are right here at THE Ohio State University, so he’s got to be pretty smart, right?

John A. Vaughn, MD
Student Health Services
The Ohio State University

So Do I Need a Pap Test or what?

rho.org

So what’s the deal with the annual gyn (“female”) exam?  Is this the same thing as a Pap test?  When do I have to start having them?  My mom says I should get one every year starting at age 18, but now my friends are telling me I don’t need one until I’m 21.  I’ve never even had sex, so do I need one at all?

These are great questions.  For something as simple as an “annual” exam – just get one every year, right? – it is an awfully confusing topic.  So let’s set the record straight.

A Pap test and the annual gyn visit are actually two different things.

A Pap test (also called a Pap smear) is a specific test that is done to screen for cervical cancer by looking for changes in the cells of your cervix.  It is often a part of the annual gyn exam, but not always. 

The annual gyn exam describes the yearly visit with your women’s health care provider in which she assesses your overall general health, female health specifically (she’ll ask you questions about periods, urinary and vaginal symptoms, breast concerns), and sexual practices.  The actual physical examination portion of the visit (usually referred to as a “pelvic exam“) includes physical examination of the vulva, vagina, uterus and ovaries, as well as the thyroid (a gland in your neck), breasts and abdomen. 

The recommendation for when a woman should receive her first Pap test has changed to age 21.  In addition, nearly every woman age 21 and older needs an annual gyn exam, regardless of whether a Pap test is done or not.  If you are younger than 21, the pelvic exam portion of the annual gyn exam may or may not be done, depending on your sexual history.  Annual testing for Chlamydia is also recommended for all sexually active women up to age 25; this is done as part of the pelvic exam. 

The OSU Comprehensive Student Health Insurance covers the annual exam once a year.  If you have other insurance, please check with your insurance company to see if they will cover the annual exam here.

The clinical staff at Ohio State Student Health Women’s Services is here to take care of all of your women’s health needs.  Come in and see us any time.

Beth Askue, MS, CNP
Student Health Services
The Ohio State University