STD Awareness: “What Are the Symptoms of an STD?”

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Anna

“I was treated for chlamydia, but my girlfriend feels fine, so she doesn’t need to get tested.”

“The only time I don’t use condoms is for oral sex, and everything’s been OK ‘down there,’ so getting tested for sexually transmitted diseases would be pointless.”

It’s important to be able to recognize the symptoms of a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Being savvy about symptoms can push you to get tested right away if you notice that something is amiss. However, being symptom-free can lull you into a false sense of security, especially if you’ve engaged in sexual activities that could have exposed you to an infectious agent. The fact of the matter is that many people with STDs have no symptoms at all. As they say, “The most common symptom of an STD is … no symptom.” Let’s take a look at some common STDs.

The most common symptom of an STD is no symptom.

Bacterial Infections

Bacterial STDs are curable with antibiotics. They include chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis — all of which can be asymptomatic, and all of which can have severe complications when they are not treated in time.

Chlamydia: Around 3 million Americans are infected with chlamydia annually, and the infection is especially common among young people (less than 25 years of age). Chlamydia can infect the penis, vagina, cervix, anus, urethra, eye, or throat. You can be afflicted with a range of symptoms: pain or a burning feeling while urinating; vaginal, cervical, or penile discharge; swelling around the anus, testicles, or vagina; and more.

However, you’re much more likely not to experience any symptoms at all — most people with chlamydia are unaware they have it. Three out of four women with chlamydia have no symptoms, and half of men with chlamydia have no symptoms. Left untreated, chlamydia can become a serious health threat. Long-term complications might lead to fertility problems and arthritis. Continue reading →

Pro-Choice Friday News Rundown

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Stacey S.

Another day, another moronic member of the GOP telling us that rape, in some way or another, isn’t all that bad for women. Maybe a pregnancy resulting from it was even “intended by God.” #Facepalm (HuffPo)
Joe Walsh, yet another imbecilic dunce from the GOP (they just keep crawling out of the woodwork, don’t they? Like termites!) says that advances in medicine have made pregnancy-related deaths obsolete and, thus, there’s never a need for abortions solely for the health of the mother. (Jezebel)
And if you thought it couldn’t get any worse than that, you’re sadly mistaken. Pennsylvania is considering a bill that would reduce welfare benefits for women who cannot prove their child was conceived from a rape. Nothing like dooming a woman and her offspring to abject poverty if she can’t prove her child was conceived without her consent. #GOPValues (Think Progress)
A sobering, fact-filled piece on rape being used as a political tool by Republican men in the debate over reproductive rights. (RH Reality Check)
President Obama wishes politicians would stay out of women’s health care. So do we, sir. (Politico)
Texas has won a court battle to exclude Planned Parenthood from the state health care program that provides services to low-income women. (Business Week)
Arizona and Indiana can forget about defunding Planned Parenthood, though, says the judicial system. (AP)
Meanwhile, in France, lawmakers passed a bill allowing free abortions for all women and free contraception for girls ages 15 to 18. (Global Post)
Somebody alert the rest of the media and call a press conference: Free birth control leads to fewer abortions. (South Florida Times)

Meet Our Candidates: Greg Gadek for State Senate, LD 25

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Matt

The Arizona general election will be held on November 6, 2012, and early voting is underway. After the many recent legislative challenges to reproductive health care access, both nationally and statewide, the importance of voting in November can’t be overstated. To help voters, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona has endorsed candidates who have shown strong commitment to reproductive health and freedom. Along with those endorsements, we are spotlighting our endorsed candidates in a series called “Meet Our Candidates.” Make your voice heard in 2012!

Mesa’s legislative district hasn’t had a candidate like Greg Gadek in several years. In the last two election cycles, the Republican candidate in Legislative District 25 has run unopposed, even though in Mesa, Democrats and independents together outnumber Republicans — a majority that Gadek believes isn’t being represented by the far-right conservatism that’s become so entrenched in the legislature.

“The deeply personal issues of reproductive choice and whom to choose as a domestic partner or spouse should be considered fundamental freedoms and protected by Arizona law.”

Running as an alternative to what he has called “a good old boy network” and “business as usual,” Gadek has received Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona’s endorsement for his commitment to reproductive freedom and access to reproductive health care. He also noted in his interview with PPAA that he is the first person to run for office in Mesa who supports marriage equality.

Located in Maricopa County, the newly redistricted LD 25 comprises approximately half of Mesa, including Dana Park, The Groves, Hohokam Park, Red Mountain Ranch, Riverview, Las Sendas, and Superstition Springs. Gadek generously took time for an interview with PPAA on October 16, 2012, to talk about his candidacy.

Please tell us a little about your background.

My name is Greg Gadek and I am the Democratic candidate for state Senate in Mesa’s newly redistricted LD 25. I have been a resident of our Mesa district for over 25 years and, with my wife Jennifer, have raised our family here. I have been a registered independent for most of my life but my views have always been closely aligned with the Democratic Party.

Arizona Republicans have merged to the extreme far right and I believe that it is time to stand up and take our state back to the middle. Regardless of your party affiliation, if you are frustrated and angry with Mesa’s “politics as usual,” our campaign gives you a real choice. I hope to have the opportunity to meet you in person over the coming weeks and months. And I hope that you will join me. Continue reading →

Host a Rally at Your House!

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona

Join Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona and a Special Guest Speaker at Arizona’s Biggest Ever Statewide Get-Out-the-Vote Event!

When:    Saturday, October 27, 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Where:   Your house
Who:      Six or seven of your friends and neighbors
Why:      To ensure that everyone in Arizona who cares about women and their access to health care gets out and votes!

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona (PPAA) is organizing Mini Rallies in living rooms and kitchens across our great state. These easy-to-organize gatherings will be PPAA’s biggest push to get women’s health supporters to the polls on Election Day, November 6. (See the event page on Facebook.)

Contact Kelly at 602-263-4240 or at kpaisley@ppaz.org to register to host a Mini Rally at your house.

PPAA needs YOU to gather a handful of friends in your home to:

Hear a LIVE address — just to us Arizonans — from our Special Guest Speaker
Review PPAA’s endorsements and complete mail-in ballots
Pledge to vote for PPAA-endorsed candidates
Tweet and post on Facebook
Contact voters … and more!

PLEASE HOST A MINI RALLY IN YOUR HOME! To make it fun AND successful, every host will receive a kit with everything you need to make your rally a success, including the fun stuff!

Call Kelly at 602-263-4240 or email at kpaisley@ppaz.org to register to be a host.

Besides casting your own ballot, this is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do to ensure VICTORY on Election Day! THANK YOU!

Meet Our Candidates: Carol Lokare for State Representative, LD 21

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Tori

The Arizona general election will be held on November 6, 2012, and early voting started on October 11. After the many recent legislative challenges to reproductive health care access, both nationally and statewide, the importance of voting in November can’t be overstated. To help voters, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona has endorsed candidates who have shown strong commitment to reproductive health and freedom. Along with those endorsements, we are spotlighting our endorsed candidates in a series called “Meet Our Candidates.” Make your voice heard in 2012!

Earlier this month we profiled Dr. Richard Carmona, a former U.S. surgeon general and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, as well as Jo Holt, a retired biochemist running for the state Senate. And last month we spotlighted Dr. Eric Meyer, a physician with experience in emergency medicine, who is running for the Arizona House of Representatives. Another candidate who would bring scientific and medical expertise to the Arizona Legislature is Carol Lokare. As an experienced registered nurse, Lokare understands both the factual basis (or lack thereof) for family planning legislation as well as the human side of the equation: how such legislation would impact people’s lives.

Lokare is currently seeking to represent Legislative District 21 — an area that includes El Mirage, Peoria, and part of Glendale — in the Arizona House of Representatives. She took the time for an interview with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona on October 17, 2012.

“I am someone who can be trusted to look out for women and families, someone who will advocate for affordable, comprehensive, easily accessible health care.”

Tell us a little bit about your background.

For the past 32 years I have worked as a registered nurse. I am a 1980 graduate of Phoenix College’s nursing program and a 1984 graduate of the University of Colorado Adult/Geriatric Nurse Practitioner Program. I have a varied background in the nursing field, having worked as a bedside nurse; manager of a hospital medical unit in Los Gatos, California; school nurse; and as a nurse practitioner in a geriatric practice in Sun City, Arizona. I recently took a leave of absence as a cardiac care nurse at Banner Boswell Hospital in Sun City to devote time and attention to my campaign for the Arizona House of Representatives, LD 21. I also have a bachelor of science degree in political science from Arizona State University.

I have been married to my husband, Sanjay, for 25 years, and we have three children, a son and two daughters.

Why do you think it is important that people make their own health care choices? What role do you feel the government should play in legislating and facilitating health care services, especially reproductive health care services?

Because of my background in the health care field this is a question that I feel can be answered in a simple and straightforward way. I cannot think of one time in the last 32 years where I have felt it necessary for any elected government official to step in and make a health care decision for a patient. All health care decisions can and should be made by a patient, his/her physician, and concerned family, without meddlesome interference by outsiders. Continue reading →

Where Disproportionate Need Meets Unequal Access: Plan B in Native American Communities

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Matt

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When President Obama signed the Tribal Law and Order Act into law two years ago, it was a long overdue step to improve public safety in Native American communities — in particular among Native American women. Department of Justice data show that Native American women are more than two-and-a-half times as likely as other women in the United States to be sexually assaulted or raped. Another statistic that sets Native American women apart from other women in the United States is the likelihood that their victimizers will be non-Native men. While other women are usually attacked by men of the same race, 86 percent of reported sexual assaults against Native American women are perpetrated by non-Native men.

Most Native Americans depend on the Indian Health Service for health care; most IHS pharmacies don’t provide emergency contraception.

The feeling that this violence is inevitable is common to many Native American women, a feeling that some have attributed to the history of military outposts on Native American lands and sexual abuse in boarding schools. Historical factors aside, a contemporary jurisdictional dead zone has enabled the problem to persist. Tribal police on Native American reservations don’t have the authority to arrest or detain non-Native suspects. Those suspects fall under federal jurisdiction, but federal marshals are too small in number and too committed to other responsibilities to provide community policing on reservations. The situation of virtual amnesty for non-Native perpetrators has created a scourge that some have dubbed “rape tourism.”

The Tribal Law and Order Act was enacted to prevent victims of sexual violence from falling through the cracks by improving investigation and prosecution of sex crimes. A New York Times article from earlier this year reported that only 13 percent of the sexual assaults reported by Native American women lead to arrests, compared to 35 percent of those reported by black women and 32 percent of those reported by white women. The improvements that the Tribal Law and Order Act promises cannot come soon enough. Continue reading →

Mexico, the United States, and HIV: It’s Complicated

Posted on October 15, 2012 by madelaineelizabetharchie

During my last semester of college, I took an Introduction to Chicana Studies class in which I read a lot about HIV transmission between the United States and Mexico. In the book we used, Latina Activists Across Borders, activists in Michoacán argue that women are infected with HIV by men who migrate to the United States and then bring it back to Mexico. While there is a lot of truth to that, the way our two countries interact on this issue is a little bit more complicated.

We need to have a more complex conversation about migration and HIV/AIDS than the one we’re having.

Often, HIV is constructed as something that is spread between “immoral” people. When it comes to transnational transmission, the country the disease comes from is seen as “immoral” or “dirty.” In the United States, we have just as many beliefs about HIV coming into the country from Mexico as the other way around. But who is right?

The answer — both/neither. Less than 1 percent of the adult Mexican population is HIV positive — that’s half the rate in the United States. According to USAID, population mobility is a big factor in HIV transmission. In Tijuana and Juarez, where HIV/AIDS rates are the highest, a large part of the population comes from South America and southern parts of Mexico. In Zacatecas and Michoacán, more than 1 in 5 people who has AIDS had lived in the United States prior to infection. Continue reading →

Meet Our Candidates: Angela LeFevre for State Representative, LD 6

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Tori

The Arizona general election will be held on November 6, 2012, with early voting starting today. After the many recent legislative challenges to reproductive health care access, both nationally and statewide, the importance of voting in November can’t be overstated. To help voters, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona has endorsed candidates who have shown strong commitment to reproductive health and freedom. Along with those endorsements, we are spotlighting our endorsed candidates in a series called “Meet Our Candidates.” Make your voice heard in 2012!

On her campaign website, Angela LeFevre describes herself as “a broad-minded Democrat who’s been involved in politics all [her] life.” In fact, she graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science with a degree in economics and international relations. She’s worked on a number of social and political causes throughout the United States, the most recent being as president of the board of Democrats of the Red Rocks (DORR), a position she held until she resigned to seek election to the Arizona House of Representatives.

“When circumstances arise and a woman is faced with a difficult choice, government has no place in making that decision for her.”

LeFevre is running as a candidate in the new Legislative District 6, an area of substantial scope, both in geography and in diversity of constituents. It extends north of Sedona and Flagstaff to the edge of Grand Canyon National Park, south past Payson and into areas of the Tonto National Forest, and east to Heber-Overgard and the Sitgreaves National Forest.

LeFevre took the time for an interview with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona on October 9, 2012.

Tell us a little bit about your background.

I was born in Leeds, England and earned a degree in economics and international relations from the London School of Economics. I immigrated to the United States in 1981 after having spent a year in Iowa as a foreign student in 1967. I knew I would come back here to live. I taught fourth grade in a New Orleans public school where my two children were students. I also started a small telecommunications business, which required hiring employees. From that I moved into the corporate world in senior management for Qwest Communications for 14 years. That meant living in Denver, Colorado, where I became active with the Democratic Party.

My life experience provides me with the skills and knowledge base to address the most crucial issues in Arizona today: the economy, jobs, and education. I have been a consistently strong advocate for women and will remain so when elected. In the past I worked on behalf of other political candidates, especially women, volunteered many hours working with disadvantaged teens both here and in Colorado. My reasons for running are many but mainly, I believe Arizona is on the wrong track, that our legislature has not represented Arizona’s citizens.

In the previous legislative session, there were a lot of bad bills that negatively affected access to birth control (HB2625), funding for family planning (HB2800), abortion (HB2036), and unbiased information about unintended pregnancies in public schools (SB1009). What kind of beneficial legislation would you like to see introduced, and why do you think it’s important to fight for it?

The legislature has been putting the cart before the horse regarding these issues. No one wants an abortion. The best way to avoid that unfortunate possibility is to educate our young people using accurate, science-based sex education in our public schools and appropriately funding family planning and affordable birth control using those methods that work best for the individual. When unprotected or forced sexual acts occur or when birth control efforts fail, we should stand by women by offering emergency contraception. Roe v. Wade is the law and, as a legislator, I will support the law. I will also do whatever I can to ensure that Planned Parenthood receive[s] full funding and that its vital contribution to health care as a whole in rural Arizona is recognized. Continue reading →