Hi, it's me again!!!

It's great that we have a chance to touch base again about sex and maintaining health. A young woman I talked with recently wanted to know if people can get chlamydia from a toilet seat. Her boyfriend said that's the only way he could've gotten it.

Look, chlamydia is not passed through casual contact. You're not going to get it by shaking hands, hugging, kissing, sitting on a toilet seat, or using someone's fork or knife.

Chlamydia needs a warm body cavity like a vagina, or an anus, or a urethra - the tube in the penis that passes semen and urine, or a cervix - the mouth of the womb or uterus. You get chlamydia from having sex with someone who is already infected. If your partner has had more than one partner over the past several months, it will be difficult to determine who gave him the infection. The important thing is to make sure that you are tested for chlamydia and other sexually transmitted infections like HIV, gonorrhea, and trichomonas.

Even if you feel well, you should be tested for chlamydia because it often has no symptoms. Untreated chlamydia can cause sterility, chronic pelvic pain, and disabling arthritis in women and men if left untreated. Antibiotic treatment for chlamydia is easily available from your private physician or from health centers like your nearest Planned Parenthood.

If you have had other sex partners, they need to be tested also. If you were unaware that your partner has had or currently has other partners, now is definitely the time to let him know whether you are O.K. with this. If you are not O.K. with either of those situations, it's time to walk. One thing for sure, you should not have sex with him again until he's been treated. And you should be using a female condom or insist that he use a latex condom to protect yourself from infection.

There are more than 1.2 million cases of chlamydia every year in the U.S. More than half of them occur in our community. Black women aged 15–19 have the highest rates of infection. It's not that we have more sex than other people. It's that many women and men in our community lack access to medical care. Also, those diagnosed with chlamydia are often reluctant to tell their partner(s), which allows the disease to continue to spread. The only way to stop the spread is to treat everyone infected. This means your partner should be telling everyone he has had sex with in the past few months to get tested and treated.

Listen, if you're unable to have honest conversations with your partner or you're afraid of what such conversations may lead to (for example, violence), then it is time to walk. If you don't care whether your partner has other partners, then use a condom to stay healthy.

Another important piece of information, all sexually active people under age 26 need to be tested for chlamydia at least once a year - especially if they haven't used a condom every time. Older folks need to talk with their clinicians about their sex lives to decide whether they need to be tested.

Safer sex is clearly important to each of us as individuals. It shows the pride and care we have for our own bodies. But protecting ourselves is also important to our families and our community. It makes all of us stronger - together. And when it comes to helping each other get through this life, pride and strength are what it's all about.

Until next time, here's to your sexual health,

Vanessa

Vanessa Cullins, MD, MPH, MBA, is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist and vice president for medical affairs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America.