Physicians Often Fail to
Discuss Sex Diseases
Orlando Sentinel
BY Merry Mayer
JANUARY 4, 2005
Social barriers, poor interviewing skills or fear of offending patients may prevent many doctors from recommending or discussing STD testing.
While several national guidelines recommend routine chlamydia screening, a Baylor College of Medicine survey of doctors found that just 22 percent reported testing patients under age 20 for the STD, and only 9 percent tested women ages 20-25. But with antibiotic treatment, chlamydia can be curable if caught early enough. Left to progress, the STD can cause women to develop pelvic inflammatory disease, which can cause chronic pelvic pain, ectopic pregnancy or infertility.
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that only half of doctors discuss STDs with all or most of their patients. And among those doctors, just 10 percent specifically mention human papillomavirus (HPV), which is linked to most cervical cancer cases. Just 5 percent of doctors discussing STDs tested and advised on genital herpes, which CDC estimates infects 20 percent of Americans.
This care gap especially harms women, who are biologically more susceptible to STD infection if exposed, and less likely than men to experience symptoms, according to National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine in Washington, DC.