“Anyone who is sexually active is at risk of contracting an STD. By sharing these very real experiences of people you and I meet every day, Dr. Grimes shows how everyday people can contract one of these preventable diseases. Everyone, including physicians, can learn from the stories in this book.” — Robert E. Rakel, M.D., Baylor College of Medicine

How Everyday People Catch STDs

The Johns Hopkins University Press (2016), 320 pgs.

You’re generally a careful, considerate person and conscientious about your health. Your new partner seems to share the same qualities. Although you use both oral contraceptives and a condom, one night you discover you’ve run out of condoms. Couldn’t you take a chance, just this once?

All it takes is one instance of unprotected sex to get a sexually transmitted disease (STD). That’s the message of Seductive Delusions: How Everyday People Catch STDs (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), by family practice physician Jill Grimes.

Dr. Grimes tells the stories of ordinary men and women who contracted the ten most common STDs. !e characters, based on patients she has seen in her private practice and in her work at University of Texas Health Services, don’t fit the stereotypical risk groups of drug users, prostitutes, and the sexually promiscuous.

These cautionary tales emphasize the fact that the decisions you make in your sex life can affect your future fertility, self-worth, comfort, and even choice of a life partner.

Readers learn:
• Which STDs are asymptomatic or hard to diagnose in either women or men
• Why, if you are diagnosed with one STD, you should get tested for others
• Why it’s crucial to tell your past and current sexual partners about your diagnosis
• How to make decisions about the best course of treatment
• Why certain STDs are misdiagnosed and why it’s important to follow up when symptoms persist

Seductive Delusions is an indispensable resource for high school and college students, parents, singles, and anyone who is sexually active. Readers who are concerned about a particular disease can go directly to the chapter that discusses it, or they can read through the book for comprehensive information on all the STDs.

“Students get so engrossed in reading this book that you can hear a pin drop – which never happens in my classroom!” — A teacher