Public figures getting caught and admitting to extramarital affairs seems to have become a weekly news event.  Tiger Woods is the latest but it’s not hard to remember the last 5 or 6 guys in this public flogging: Mark Sanford, John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, David Letterman, Kobe Bryant, Alex Rodriguez, etc.  The typical story is a narrative that goes like this: famous guy gets caught, paparazzi photos and other forms of data detritus draw media attention (e.g. blue Gap dress, phone bills, emails, texts), days of denials are followed by official confession with apologies, wife stands by wordlessly (Silda Spitzer) or not (Elin Nordegren and Jenny Sanford), late night comics enjoy a fresh crop of easy jokes, pundits analyze and ponder political and economic cost to famed celebrity, and then the comeback.

But there’s always one part of the story that’s missing: STD testing.

When you or your spouse has sex outside of the relationship, there is an increased risk of becoming infected with an STD.  To be clinically blunt, any sexual activity that allows blood, semen, or other body fluids to come into contact with the mucous membrane or through cuts or lesions could spread a sexually transmitted disease.  Oral sex, penetration with fingers, and sharing sex toys, as well as touching open sores and then other parts of the body, are all possible ways to send disease from one person to another.

So, did Tiger get regular STD tests to safeguard his sexual health and protect his wife?

Extramarital affairs are, of course, not confined to the rich and famous.  In fact, University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center did a massive study in 2002 which found that 15% of women and 22% of men had said they’d had sex with someone besides their spouse while married.

We’re not here to moralize or philosophize about marriage and monogamy.  If you are concerned about your sexual health and the health of those you love, get tested regularly.  We’re here to help.