Photo: juststock (Getty)
I know all of you folks enjoy frolicking naked with strangers, but I really hope you’re protecting yourself while you’re frolicking because there are a ton of diseases and horrible stuff out there. You can also end up with a baby in your life and say goodbye to a proper sleep forever. And that just sounds like a nightmare. But what also sounds like a nightmare? A sexually-transmitted infection known as mycoplasma genitalium, MG for short.
MG is bad news because health experts believe it’s becoming resistant to antibiotics.
“It’s essentially acting like a superbug, with research showing at least 50 per cent of people have a drug-resistant MG, limiting their treatment options, “Professor Suzanne Garland from Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital said.
So what in the hell is MG? Well it’s a bug that could cause infertility and premature birth in pregnant women. Even scarier, Professor Garland says people never show symptoms, but both men and women with MG may experience pain while urinating.
The good news is there is now a simple test that can screen people for the condition and which treatments are likely to work. The new test is covered by Medicare and will be rolled out to surgeries and clinics across Australia.
Sexual health experts said it was difficult to get an accurate picture of how prevalent MG is.
“In sexual health clinics, 10-35 per cent of the people being tested have it,” Professor Garland said.
To get a better picture of how prevalent MG is, health experts want MG to be made a “notifiable disease”, which means laboratories need to report it to state and territory health departments.
And guess what? You don’t have to have intercourse to catch it as you can get it simply through foreplay.