May 2002
Sexually transmitted diseases and the destruction they do to the inside as well as to the outside of the body are the physical consequences associated with premarital sex—having intimate sexual contact outside of marriage. One such disease—Chlamydia, affects millions of women each year. If one was to get Chlamydia, she may have symptoms of painful urination, severe abdominal pain, high fever, and an abnormal discharge from the vagina. She should go to her physician and be tested. If confirmed, the doctor will treat her with antibiotics to kill the Chlamydia.
However, 80% of females with Chlamydia display no symptoms! That means that she is infected with the Chlamydia bacteria and doesn’t know it. Because there is no treatment given, but the bacteria is busy infecting the inside of her body—her reproductive system. On the inside of her body, it looks like someone poured glue in the fallopian tubes and uterus causing the tubes to become obstructed which the means the sperm has difficulty getting to the egg or the egg has difficulty getting into or beyond the fallopian tube to be fertilized.
If this untreated infection happens twice, it could make it very difficult for her to get pregnant. If it happens four or more times without treatment, a young woman could become sterile. We in the medical community call Chlamydia the silent killer of hopes and dreams. Many women think that if she’s had no symptoms, even though she has been sexually active outside of marriage, she couldn’t possibly have had a disease. However, after they get married and want to get pregnant, they can’t conceive. Then she goes to her doctor for further testing and exploratory surgery and he finds her fallopian tubes either partially or completely blocked…and doctors can’t undo the damage already done.
Young women (teens) are especially susceptible to Chlamydia. Chlamydia is responsible for a 400% increase in tubal pregnancies, which means the fertilized egg begins to grow in the tube because it can’t get to the uterus like it’s supposed to do because the fallopian tube is too blocked for the egg to get by, but not too blocked for the sperm to pass through. Chlamydia also leaves 1 Million women with Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) and 100,000 infertile each year.
Think about your hopes and your dreams—what do you want your future to look like?