If Dr. Sharon Miller had her way, condoms would be available at party stores, gas stations, and beauty supplies. Anyone could get a condom at every turn, and she said that would help reduce the numbers of HIV and sexually transmitted infections that continue to cycle through the community.
“I’m seeing all the diseases—a rise in syphilis. I just delivered [a baby from] an HIV patient,” said the obstetrician-gynecologist for The Wellness Plan Medical Centers.
“I’m seeing herpes, HPV [human papillomavirus], and I’m seeing chlamydia and gonorrhea daily. I’m seeing it all, and everything I’ve mentioned is pretty much avoidable if you use a condom.”
In Detroit, Southeast Michigan, and across the nation, health practitioners report a rise in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as trichomoniasis, a sexually transmitted parasite, and HIV.
Miller says she believes the rise is primarily due to dating apps people turn to for casual sex. With a quick swipe, they can find a partner who won’t expect a night out for dinner, a movie, or some other activity. The pairing is intended for sex only.
She focuses on her primarily single patients, but she warns that married couples also may consider using condoms if there have been signs of infidelity in the relationship or an STI has been discovered.
“If you’re married, you have about a 50% chance of infidelity in your marriage,” Miller said.
Miller said many people, especially her younger patients, don’t understand that having STIs may seem harmless because they can cure them with a prescription. But a teen or young woman in her early 20s can lead to infertility.
She said she often sees young women in this predicament.
“She wasn’t careful in her teens and early 20s. Then, when she’s in her late 20s or early 30s,” Miller said, “she’s crying because she can’t get pregnant.”
Diana Dunbar, a coordinator of sexual health for The Wellness Plan Medical Centers, who educates and counsels patients who get infected, said she advises regular screening.
She said frequent testing, safe sex, and using a condom are generally good advice. Each time you’ve started a new relationship, use a condom until both partners test negative for common infections. Then care still needs to be taken because people, even when committed, can be unfaithful.
She believes in talking to her patients as if they were friends instead of using clinical terms. When it comes to oral sex, her favorite phrase to explain safer oral sex is “Swallow or spit, don’t let it sit.”
Patients understand and remember that information, she said. Make safer sex fun by using flavored condoms, flavored lubricants, and other products. But she reminds them not to allow whipped cream and other food products to get in the vagina, which can cause infections such as bacterial vaginosis (BV), the most common vaginal infection, or a yeast infection.
Dunbar said she also teaches her patients how to have safer sex when a condom is unavailable such as using a flavored lubricant during oral or anal sex, which creates a protective barrier. She warns them to protect their “pink parts,” which includes the eyes. Some people contract sexual infections in their eyes from getting semen on their faces. Since there are no condoms for the eyes, she suggests using goggles or eyeglasses to protect them.
Miller and Dunbar say women must take more responsibility for their sexual health because men tend to talk them out of it or shame them for wanting to use a condom.
Dunbar offers free kits that include condoms, dental dams, and lubricant. To order kits, she said people can stop by her office in The Wellness Plan’s Northwest location or call her at (313) 875-5131 to pick them up. She also will mail them to anyone who requests it.
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