Are the Headlines Hijacking Your Sex Life?
Could sex make you depressed? Do STDs cause cancer? Not if you know the whole story behind the headlines. Here's the truth about the latest sex scares.
By Kelly Marages
Photo Credit: E. May/Getty Images
THE SCARE:
A rare and aggressive HIV strain is reported in New York.
—The New York Times, February 12, 2005
THE DETAILS: A man is diagnosed
with a rare strain of multidrug-resistant
HIV that progresses rapidly
to AIDS; the announcement sparks
panic about a "superbug" epidemic.
THE TRUTH: You shouldn't be any
more alarmed about HIV now than
you were before, says Howard Grossman,
M.D., executive director of the
American Academy of HIV Medicine.
"'Superbug' implies that nothing
is going to stop it," he says, but condoms
do help protect you from this, as
they do with other HIV strains.
More reasons not to panic: Although
the case was reported seven months
ago, this new strain has been found
in just one person to date. Officials
sounded a similar "superbug" alarm
in Vancouver in 2001, and doctors did
find drugs to effectively treat those
involved, says Dr. Grossman. But treating
the disease doesn't mean erasing
it, so don't let your guard down.
THE SCARE:
Sex addicts are
more likely to be
depressed.
—The Boston Herald, June 12, 2005
THE DETAILS: A new study suggests
that people who have a dependence on
sex are roughly four times as depressed
as the rest of the population.
THE TRUTH: These findings were for
people actually addicted to sex, not just
frequent shaggers. Sex addicts, explains
study author Douglas Weiss,
Ph.D., use sex to self-medicate and
can't be emotionally intimate during
the act. Just liking sex a lot does not
translate to depression — in fact, it does
quite the opposite, says Dr. Weiss:
"Great sex is great for you."
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