Who Is at Risk?

Many women seeking family planning services—women in stable, mutually faithful, long-term relationships—face little risk of getting an STI. Some clients may be at high risk for STIs, however, or have an STI now. Clients who might benefit most from discussion of STI risk include those who do not have steady partners, unmarried clients, and anyone, married or unmarried, who asks or expresses concern about STIs or HIV, or that her partner may have other partners.

The risk of acquiring an STI, including HIV, depends on a person's behavior, the behavior of that person's sexual partner or partners, and how common those diseases are in the community. By knowing what STIs and what sexual behavior are common locally, a health care provider can better help a client assess her or his own risk.

Understanding their own risk for HIV and other STIs helps people decide how to protect themselves and others. Women are often the best judges of their own STI risk, especially when they are told what behaviors and situations can increase risk.

Sexual behavior that can increase exposure to STIs includes:

• Sex with a partner who has STI symptoms
• A sex partner who has recently been diagnosed with or treated for an STI
• Sex with more than one partner—the more partners, the more risk
• Sex with a partner who has sex with others and does not always use condoms
• Where many people in the community are infected with STIs, sex without a condom may be risky with almost any new partner

In certain situations people tend to change sexual partners often, to have many partners, or to have a partner who has other partners—all behaviors that increase the risk of STI transmission. This includes people who:

• Have sex for money, food, gifts, shelter, or favors
• Move to another area for work or travel often for work, such as truck driving
• Have no established long-term sexual relationship, as is common among sexually active adolescents and young adults
• Are the sexual partners of these people

Previous Chapter   Previous Page     Next Page   Next Chapter