Chapter 5: Preventing Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)

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HealthWiki > Health Actions for Women > Chapter 5: Preventing Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)

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In this chapter:

• Chapter 5: Preventing Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs)
• Start where people are at
• Learn how STIs spread to help prevent them
• Women's equality prevents STIs
• Gender roles and STIs
• Men share responsibility for STI prevention
• Safer sex requires good communication
• Community strategies for STI prevention

Sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, are illnesses that pass from one person to another during sex. All STIs can be prevented, but prevention is difficult for many people, especially women.

To prevent STIs, it is important that people become comfortable thinking about and talking about STIs without embarrassment or shame. Discussing STIs in a group can help people talk about these infections as easily as they talk about health problems that are not related to sex, such as diarrhea or the flu. Group discussions can also help people understand how an STI never harms just one person. Learning about STIs with a group can help spread prevention throughout the whole community!

Please tell me what’s wrong, Clara. I can see you’re not feeling well.

I am embarrassed, but I will tell you. Esteban returned from the city 2 weeks ago, and I was so glad to see him. But now having sex is painful and it even hurts when I pee. I almost want him to go away again! I don’t know what to do.