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Sex, sickness and silencePhysical consequences of homosexual lifestyleOne could almost be forgiven for thinking that there is a conspiracy to hide the medical consequences of permissive behaviour from the public at large. EN asked a practising GP to explain the facts. (Some readers may find the details offensive - for which we apologise.) The dangers and difficulties associated with indiscriminate sexual activity are frequently down-played. One currently popular text on the psychology of adolescence blithely asserts that 'the figures do not support commonly prevailing mythology' that sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are increasing. This is simply untrue. In a recent British Medical Journal review on the sexual health of the nation, Professor Michael Adler states that latest figures on STDs 'confirm that no real reduction has been seen nationally'.1 In fact, the three most common conditions (anogenital warts, chlamydia and herpes) show no decrease since 1988, with the first two conditions actually showing a recent increase. In the UK some 580,000 people are treated with a new STD every year, over 20,000 of them teenagers. Sexually transmitted diseasesThe problems associated with STDs are not just those related to the symptoms of the disease itself - commonly a discharge, lump or ulceration. I frequently see patients weep with dismay and shock when such a diagnosis is made. People who have only had three or four serial sexual partners do not regard themselves as promiscuous, and frequently experience utter disbelief that it could have happened to them. Many are unaware that conditions such as genital warts have an incubation period of many months and can be passed on without any visible signs having been present in the infecting partner. Depression and chronic anxiety frequently result from a diagnosis such as genital herpes - a painful recurrent condition for which there is as yet no cure. Such infections occur principally in serial or multiple sexual relationships. The earlier sexual intercourse first takes place, the greater the number of lifetime partners that individual is likely to have. A sexually active 15-year-old has ten times the risk of getting pelvic inflammatory disease (PID - an infection of the ovaries and fallopian tubes) than a woman who does not start intercourse until she is 23.1a PID also frequently leads to infertility - in 10% of women after just one attack, rising to over 50% with three attacks. A sexual debut at a young age also has other dangers. Cancer of the cervix kills over 1,500 women each year in the UK. The disease is strongly linked to sexually-transmitted viral infection and the risk of getting it is doubled if a girl has first intercourse under the age of 14.2 The risk is further increased not only by the more sexual partners she has had, but also by the number of previous sexual partners any of her male partners has had.2a Condoms - the new Russian rouletteMany popular teen and adult magazines mention some or all of these problems from time to time, but the solution is always easy - 'wear a condom'. However, when this simple advice is given, the whole truth is rarely spelt out. Even among experienced couples, the failure rate for condoms in some studies is as high as 15% for pregnancy3 (though as low as 3% in other studies). The rates of unwanted pregnancy and abortions currently show no sign of falling in the UK despite the ready availability of contraception. Indeed, 80% or more of unplanned pregnancies result from failure of contraception (mainly condoms), rather than lack of contraceptive use.4 If the failure rate for pregnancy is so high, when pregnancy can only occur for a part of the woman's monthly cycle, how much greater must the failure rate be for protection against STDs, which can be passed on with any act of intercourse? No wonder one correspondent in the British Medical Journal likened using a condom as protection against AIDS to playing a game of Russian roulette!5 Yet when a well-known Christian educational charity promoted a booklet in which abstinence and chastity were merely listed as options to be considered as sensible precautions, one local authority tried to get the booklet banned from schools. HomosexualityIf the risks from heterosexual permissiveness are great, those presented by the gay lifestyle in the West are even more formidable. Though globally nine out of ten of all new infections of AIDS have been acquired heterosexually, in the UK, AIDS still predominantly affects gay men. The latest prevalence figures from two London clinics show infection with HIV at 11.4% for homosexual men and 1.1% for heterosexual men.1 However, though AIDS is the most highly publicised problem, it is certainly not the only one. Others too may engage in this act, but the high frequency of anal intercourse amongst gay men leads to a greater incidence of anal trauma, infection and cancer.6 In a 1987 New York study of 156 consecutive cases of anal cancer diagnosed between 1959 and 1967, only 8% were gay or bisexual; in the 1977-1986 group the figure had risen to 72%.7 Gut infections with a wide variety of infectious agents commonly occur in homosexual men; in fact this cluster of infections is known clinically as 'the gay bowel syndrome'. Even a casual perusal of any textbook on the treatment of gut infections in gay men will show that the frequency and range of diseases is quite different from those among even promiscuous heterosexuals.8 Perhaps the most disturbing evidence of the danger to the health of gay men is found in a recent article in the Journal of Death and Dying. The authors analysed over 6,500 obituaries in the gay press in the USA over 13 years and compared them with obituaries from two conventional newspapers. Those from conventional papers paralleled US averages for longevity - the median age of death for married men was 75 (with 80% dying aged 65 or over), for unmarried men it was 57 (with 32% dying aged 65 or over). For the over 6,500 homosexual deaths, the median age was 39 if death was AIDS-related, and 42 if from causes unrelated to AIDS. The authors chillingly conclude that: 'The pattern of early death evident in homosexual obituaries is consistent with the pattern exhibited in the published surveys of homosexuals and intravenous drug abusers.'9 What is truth?Political correctness has all but suppressed the ability to speak openly about the consequences of sexual behaviours. When I appeared as a witness on the BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze earlier this year, presenting some of the above facts, I was accused of being a moral fascist who made the 'fundamental error' of basing my moral values on biology. My accuser reminded me somewhat of the tobacco lobby which, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, is still trying to defend passive smoking as harmless. I do not believe that we should construct a sexual morality from the facts presented above, but I do believe that they give us considerable pause for thought, particularly in regard to lowering the age of consent for homosexual sex. The official line of the British Medical Association and all the main political parties is that homosexuality poses no more risks to health than straight sex. On the issues discussed above, they remain silent. Letters to them raising these questions as often as not get no reply - and certainly no satisfactory answers. I encourage readers of EN to keep trying, however! Dr. Trevor Stammers, References1. Adler M., Sexual health - a Health of the Nation Failure, BMJ, 1997, 314, 1743-47. © Evangelicals Now - December 1997 |