The True Cost of Sexual Health

Budget cuts are never looked fondly upon, however they have been the topic of heated discussion on the news lately.

The Republicans in the House passed a bill to cut the entire $317 million Title X budget which included  $75 million in federal funding allotted to Planned Parenthood. Title X money helps pay for birth control, screening and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, breast and cervical cancer testing, prenatal care, sex education and vasectomies for men.

What does this mean for us? 


Over 4.7 million people might lose access to the services provided by Planned Parenthood, many of them low-income and medically underserved. I can tell you of several of my friends at college utilized many of the services offered by Planned Parenthood, including Plan B disbursement and STD screenings. To see what is funded by Title X in your state, guttmacher.org has some great statistics.

Whether or not you agree with the Planned Parenthood funding cuts, let's take a look at the true cost of STDs.
There 8 major STDs are:

1. HIV
2. human papillomavirus (HPV)
3. genital herpes simplex virus type 2
4. hepatitis B
5. chlamydia
6. gonorrhea
7. trichomoniasis
8. syphilis.

 The total estimated burden of the 9 million new cases of these STDs that occurred among 15–24-year olds in 2000 was $6.5 billion. HIV and HPV  accounting for 90% of the total burden ($5.9 billion). This study shows the breakdown of the costs of each disease, everything from diagnosis, treatment, hospitalization, and later diseases that develop as a result of the initial STD infection (such as chronic liver failure from Hepatitis B or persistent secondary infections due to HIV).
Now, I'm sure the likelihood of you being infected with all 8 of the major STDs are slim, but regardless one can discern that the long-term costs of STDs are far larger than the cost to purchase appropriate contraception and to get screened.

Learnvest states, "If you are low income and/or without insurance, you may have to pay the full price of STD screenings, which can cost $85 to $220 for each type. That doesn’t include the cost of the doctor’s visit, which can be another $200." So before any funding gets cut, utilize resources like this one that can help you find clinics with free STD screening services.

Or you can simply offset all of these costs by spending as low as $0.15 on a male condom. That's right, a dime + nickel! Female condoms are far more expensive, ranging from  $2.50 to $5.00 each, and like the male condom, it's not reusable. The guys from myscienceproject.org did a wonderful cost analysis of a project which involved them to buy hundreds of our favorite latex product. Their advice? 

Buy in bulk from online retailers who sell in bulk quantities, or at membership warehouse stores (like Costco or BJs).To achieve the greatest savings, they suggest getting a large group of friends, (book clubs, sports teams) to buy collectively . 

"A ten-member collective contributing $10 or less per person could easily buy a quantity of 500 condoms online ($95 at CondomDepot.com), including shipping. For less than the price of a box of a dozen condoms purchased at a drugstore, each member will have 50 condoms, bought at the price of $0.19 a piece (versus $0.99 each or more). That’s a total savings of about $40 per person!"