AN INCREASING COST OF FREE LOVE
Somers, Alan
An Increasing Cost Of Free Love by Alan Somers Alan Somers will receive his M.D. in June. He feels, as do the editors, that anyone wishing to dabble in our national saturnalia of free...
...The only symptom in the female is a discharge, but the complications can be tragic and crippling...
...The progressive disease is similar to but not so vast as in the female...
...Anyone having the symptoms of venereal disease should see a physician and state his suspicions...
...It is naive to suggest celibacy until marriage and after that fidelity, although this is the best approach to venereal disease...
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...Gonorrhea is often though of as an irritating but rather benign disease...
...However this may appear as an innocent pimple...
...If the victim of syphilis is adequately treated in the primary or secondary stage and he or she has adequate follow-up in the hands of a physician, he or she will be spared the terrible progression to tertiary syphilis...
...With the concomitant fall of measles due to the new vaccine, we can look for these sweet diseases of love to move to second and third and maybe to first and second on their merits alone...
...Three to six weeks after the chancre appears, the signs and symptoms of secondary syphilis ensue...
...The problem of venereal disease can be attacked from many sides...
...It is this form of the disease that kills, paralyzes and robs sight and sanity...
...This is far from fact...
...The victim must not only receive treatment but must have adequate follow-up to prevent relapse, which in the case of syphilis, may be years...
...The infection may ascend and cause sterility and it may become blood borne and cause the same diseases as in the female when the bacteria is in her blood...
...In the male, the symptoms are much more noticeable and irritating...
...indeed it is also the "pick-up," the sweet looking free love practitioners on the college campus, the transient, be he migrant farm worker, student, or homosexual, that is the great reservoir of venereal disease — those who shift from partner to partner and place to place...
...Syphilis is a much more virulent and insidious disease...
...but in the female it may be hidden in the folds of the vulva or deep within the vagina — far from the view of the human eye...
...He feels, as do the editors, that anyone wishing to dabble in our national saturnalia of free love should be willing to encounter its consequences — one of which is venereal disease...
...the bacteria may enter the abdominal cavity and cause peritonitis, or they may find their way into the blood steam and cause arthritis, infections in the heart or meningitis...
...The public ignorance of these diseases is appalling and a serious indictment of the stuffiness of our secondary education...
...The infection may ascend in the reproductive tract, scarring the falopian tubes and causing future sterility or tubal pregnancies which are life-threatening when they rupture...
...These are a rash on any part of the body, patches of hair falling out, fever, sore throat, or splitting headaches...
...Chancres may also appear on the thighs, in the anal region, on the brests, or aboutv and in the mouth...
...From 1957 to 1963, the reported cases rose 300% and there are no indications that the epidemic has slowed...
...This type of investigation will often reveal scores of unsuspecting victims...
...The oral contraceptive was hailed as the means to allow all people to pursue and participate with impunity in the national orgasm...
...A rule of thumb might be: don't go to bed with anyone you don't know well enough to determine if they may or may not have venereal disease and don't kiss any stranger with a cold sore...
...Pregnancy can now be prevented and as Victoria looses her grip on society, venereal disease should be the feared consequence of imprudent and idiscriminating sex...
...All contacts must be exposed so that they may be examined for the disease and state their other contacts...
...A purulent liquid is discharged from the penis and urination becomes very painful...
...It is heralded by a sore — classically, and ulcerated lesion that is painless unless secondarily infected...
...Then, and most importantly, we must exercise discretion in sexual contacts...
...Telephone 812 - 332-1369 BUTCHER'S TYPING SERVICE Xerox Copying — Mimeographing Ditto Service C. E. BUTCHER 817 W. 17th Street Owner Bloomington, Ind...
...In babies who are born through the infected birth canal, blindness may result...
...In 1963, four thousand people died of the direct effects of syphilis...
...Syphilis is the cause of over 29% of the blindness in this country, and over 10% of all patients in mental institutions are there as a result of syphilis attacks on the brain...
...Fear of the bulging abdomen — the irrefutable evidence that she really does do it, is rapidly becoming passe...
...The chancre, as this primary lesion is called, usually appears on the penis on the male which makes it rather obvious...
...The prostitute and those who make use of her services are commonly held by the public to be the only people to acquire venereal disease...
...In 1963 gonorrhea and syphilis were third and fourth respectively in the ranking of communicable diseases in the United States...
Vol. 1 • May 1968 • No. 6
