by Joe S. McIlhaney Jr.

About the author: Joe S. McIlhaney Jr. is an obstetrician and gynecologist who specializes in infertility in Austin, Texas.

Largely because of the heightened promiscuity of the past thirty years, America faces a health crisis: a silent epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, also known as STDs. To be certain, venereal diseases are nothing new, but the increased variety of sexually transmitted diseases, not to mention the increased number of Americans who contract them, is new. In 1997 the Institute of Medicine not only claimed that “eight new sexually transmitted pathogens (germs) have been identified since 1980, bringing with them new challenges to prevention and treatment,” but also warned that “more STDs will emerge and become established in the U.S.” The warning was prophetic; shortly...