It’s easier to get an STI if you have a vagina. Isn’t that nice to hear? Not only do women have to compete with sexism at work, in the home and on the street, we also get to enjoy it at the doctor’s office.
STIs are sexist for two main reasons: because you’re more likely to catch one if you’re a woman, and because you’re more likely to suffer complications to your health as a result of an STI if you’re a woman.
They’re easier to catch as a woman because the skin of your vagina is thinner than the skin of a penis. It’s a mucus membrane which more easily allows you to receive an infection. Dr. Hunter Handsfield, professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Washington Center for AIDS and STDs explains: ‘The lining of the vagina is thinner and more delicate than the skin on a penis, so it's easier for bacteria and viruses to penetrate and take hold. Once there, the moist environment of the vagina is perfect for growth.'
In terms of infections passed by semen, if the semen stays within a cavity in your body, as is common with vaginal or anal sex, you’re exposed to any potential infection for longer.
Men are also less likely to have health issues as a result of STIs. Women who contract HPV from men are then at risk of developing cervial cancer. Men can also contract penile cancer but Dr Hansfield said that the infection rate is 'about one hundredth the rate that women get cervical cancer from HPV’.
Your fertility is also at risk as a woman who has an STI. ‘Chlamydia and gonorrhea, for example, are two of the leading preventable causes of infertility and ectopic pregnancies in the United States, and on Earth,’ says Dr Hansfield.
There’s also an issue of diagnosis. Women are more likely to mistake STI symptoms for other maladies. A low-level itch can be a symptom of a variety of infections but is often written off as a yeast infection and self treated with over the counter medicine. Similarly, a burning feeling when you pee might be mistaken for a bog-standard bout of cystitis which you dose up with cranberry juice and water.
Obviously it’s no ones fault that STIs are sexist, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying. Unfortunately, all we can really do about it is shake our fists at mother nature, get tested regularly and use a condom.