On Wednesday, April 5, room 103 in Shouvlin hosted the LGBT Sex Ed Workshop, which included free STD testing.
Cory D’Ambrosio is a certified health education specialist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, who traveled to Wittenberg for the workshop and to test anyone interested. She presented a PowerPoint titled “Let’s Talk About (Safer) Sex, Baby,” which covered safe sex topics.
She began with sexually transmitted diseases: what they look like and their symptoms. An interesting fact is that there are STD’s which one may not see symptoms of at all, like gonorrhea. She stressed this is why it is important to be tested.
There were around 20 Wittenberg students that showed up for the workshop whom got tested. After D’Ambrosio’s talk about STD’s, they felt it was better to be safe than sorry.
“That’s a tricky thing – having no symptoms,” a student, who wished to remain anonymous, said. “I think that is why everyone should be tested at least once a year and I’m glad Wittenberg is giving us this opportunity today. You never know.”
Students were able to be tested for HIV, gonorrhea and chlamidya. No blood was needed to be drawn in the process. A simple throat swab would allow a student to be tested for HIV, and a urine sample would confirm whether or not someone has gonorrhea or chlamidya.
The Womyn’s Center room in Shouvlin, where the group gathered, also provided free condoms, lubricant and dental dams for anyone that wanted to take them. D’Ambrosio also spoke about these things in her presentation. Barrier methods include penetrative condoms, insertive condoms, dental dams and latex gloves. A tip to go along with these methods is to use lubricant because it reduces tearing of the anal and vaginal linings.
“Don’t let anyone bring out the Crisco,” D’Ambrosio said.
The Womyn’s Center is considering having D’Ambrosio come back with a team to do testing more often, considering the turn out for the LGBT Sex Ed Workshop.
