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| Blogs > Insindiary > Insindiary's Diary |
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Textbook Megan was having horrible abdominal pain last week. On Tuesday, she went to urgent care. I've tested positive for Chlamydia, she texted me. Naturally, this was concerning. Megan and I started having unprotected sex a month ago. Even if we had used protection, there is still a risk of transmission. I made an appointment with my doctor to get tested. "Could it be from you? Or from you through Tricia?" Megan asked. She was not agitated, emotional, or hysteric. She was only curious. I was impressed with how calm she was in the face of this news. It could certainly have been worse. Chlamydia is easily treatable, and is not resistant to antibiotics, like some current strains of Gonorrhea. It's important to contact sexual partners so they can get tested. Few people actually show symptoms of the infection when they have it. "I suppose it's possible," I told her. "Neither of us have symptoms." "Could she have got it from Phin?" Phin is Tricia's boyfriend. The two of them had been having unprotected sex as well. "We will all get tested," I assured Megan. And so I did, and I tested positive for Chlamydia as well. I emailed Maggie, Andrea, and Annette in turn. They were each thankful for the news, sympathetic to me, and not terribly worried. Tricia got her results later. "Negative," she told me. I assumed I had been carrying it for some time, and that I infected Megan as soon as we stopped using condoms, but that was now unlikely since Tricia was not infected. It's likely that Megan infected me, and I was not yet showing symptoms. Megan was surprised too. She has a husband and another married boyfriend. There are plenty of avenues for this infection. It's uncertain and probably impossible to determine who got it first and from where. But I don't think it matters. I have always suspected that STI rates are lower among non-monogamous people than they are among monogamous, "normal" people. The reason is that communication is so important between people with open relationships. With that, removing the stigma of STIs is important to the community I'm involved with. For people in<b> monogamous </font></b>relationships, they may assume there is no need to get tested regularly for STIs. But people either cheat, or are unknowingly involved with someone who cheats. Sadly, this is not uncommon. When you're not monogamous, and everyone you're involved with knows it, the risk is always there for an infection to spread, and you can go into a relationship knowing this. I think this Chlamydia episode is a textbook example of that dynamic. Everyone involved was calm, and acted quickly to inform others of a potential health risk. Everyone is getting tested and treated accordingly. The infection will be gone in all of us in a few weeks, and we won't present a danger to the people we love. For Megan, the infection triggered Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) which was causing her abdominal pain. She felt better almost immediately after starting on antibiotics. Her doctor removed her IUD to assist healing. She is no longer on birth control. She and I will be going back to condoms for the foreseeable future. Which is fine with me. I don't think either of us have much appetite for the time being to continue our no-condom adventures. Don't misunderstand me - I'm not ashamed. I feel no shame because I have not done anything shameful. I do think I should get tested more often (it's been a year). This sort of thing is a good reminder that things can and do go wrong sometimes. But I am aware of the risks. And I'm doing everything I can to inform and protect the people I care about. If that attitude was more prevalent in our society, there would be less STIs to go around. |
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