Sexual Integrity Safeguards Human Health By Dr Stuart Reece Human health has been broadly defined by the WHO as long ago as 1948 as “a state of complete physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of individuals and societies and not merely the absence of sickness or infirmity1.” It is appropriate then to explore each of these realms in turn. It was first shown by Sorokin in 19562 that sexual decadence was directly related historically to the demise of most great civilizations for when they became morally lax they became structurally weak and vulnerable to external attack and demise. Culturally the strength of a society was related to the strength of its families. It is accepted that by far the major cause of suicide is the breakdown of intimate relationships. Suicide of course is usually preceded by depression and relationship breakdown is one of the major causes of this. People with complex relationships including many sexual partners have more concerns in relation to childcare an custody issues. Sexual jealousy is a recurrent and potentially very explosive and dangerous issue. So too is the traumatic and frequently shame engendering business of having to trace partners when one has contracted a venereal infection from a usually unknown source at a generally unknown time. And it is no secret that sexual non-conformists such prostitutes have been shown to have higher than normal rates of drug addiction, mental illness, suicide, and criminal involvement than non-prostitutes3; that homosexuals have higher rates of anxiety, depression, drug taking4 and violent death than non-homosexuals5,6,7,8 and that transgender patients have the highest rates of all of prostitution, drug abuse, suicidal ideation and attempts, STI’s, health problems, psychological problems, sex industry employment, rape and criminal involvement9,10,11. Even the murder rate amongst transgender persons has been found to be elevated over four hundred times (from 2 to 943 per hundred thousand)12. In these cases their appears a direct relationship by group between the degree of sexual deviancy and the extent to which “life does not work” in emotional, social and psychological senses. Sexuality and moral behaviour is one of the major concerns of religion: in general the strictest spiritual codes have the strongest sexual ethics and prohibitions which in turn tend to be associated with the most robust and resilient and productive societies. It is a well known fact that the libertarian arguments of the sexual revolution in relation to physical health rests on three main tenets: condoms, contraception, and testing. There are three levels to the arguments in relation to condoms and human health. The first relates to structural abnormalities and imperfections in the latex materials; the second relates to the efficacy of condoms against sexual disorders; and the third relates to the person efficacy in population health sense as to the reliability of condom use given maximum levels of safe sex educational exposure. Photographs taken through microscopes have been published of holes and large pores in latex rubber13, gaps between ribbons of latex in a so-called latex sheet14, and tunnels and crevices opening up deep
2 inside the latex structure15,16 amongst other defects. In addition a variety of physical studies have been performed on condom latex to demonstrate its unacceptably high failure rates of 30-40%17,18 both at room temperature and particularly after storage in typical conditions involving high temperatures and humidities,19 to pollution including smog20 or simply with aging21. Hence there is no question that condoms have identified structural weakness and faults associated with high rates of failure on physical leak testing which make their use in the important applications of contraception and disease prevention inherently seriously problematic. The diseases which are usually regarded as being sexually transmitted infections are in order of their frequency: genital warts (over 70 subtypes of human papilloma virus “HPV”), herpes simplex (Types I and II “HSV”), non-specific urethritis (NSU), chlamydia, candida, Hepatitis B and C, bacterial vaginosis, candida, public scabies, public lice, gonorrhoea, syphilis, trichomonas, granuloma inguinale, lymphogranuloma inguinale, chancroid, some forms of arthritis due to gonococcus and chlamydia and HIV / AIDS (19 illnesses). Other diseases are not usually considered as STI’s but which may be transmitted by this mechanism particularly where anal sex is involved include glandular fever (Epstein-Barr virus) cytomegalovirus (CMV), molluscum contagiousum, prostatitis, seminal vesiculitis, typhoid, paratyphoid, amoebiasis, giardiasis, salmonellosis and shigellosis and Hepatitis A, tuberculosis and mycobacterium intracellulare, Kaposi’s sarcoma virus - Human Herpes Virus 8, vancomycin resistant enterococcus (VRE) and vancomycin resistant staphylococcus (VRS) (17 illnesses). This is a total of 36 sexually transmissible infections. It should be pointed out that whilst the first list is found in many textbooks of venereology, the second list is referred to only by various social commentators but would nonetheless be agreed upon as potentially sexually spread by medical authorities. These illnesses have many important complications including sterility, pain from sex, pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, cancer of the cervix, vagina, vulva, anus and anal canal, and oropharynx from the E6 and E7 proteins of HPV and death (from ectopic pregnancy, PID, cancer, depression and suicide). The first four diseases listed account for over 80% of the disorders seen in Australian22,23 and New Zealand24 clinics. The most important point to note is that CONDOMS HAVE NOT BEEN TESTED AGAINST MOST OF THESE ILLNESSES and in most of those cases where they have been tested no protective results have been found. In one illness (NSU) no causative organism has been isolated so that testing is not possible. It is also important to note that most of these illnesses are spread NOT by body fluids, but by skin contact. Obviously there is extensive skin contact even when condoms are used, which is why physicians do not pretend that condoms work against the commonest STI’s. As a direct result of this poor efficacy rate, it is said that 70% of all sexually active persons carry the warts virus, and some studies show that 65% of Sydney STD clinic clients carry HSV25. This is the reason for the present excitement over the HPV vaccine. Condoms are believed to be effective against gonococcal disease. This means that careful study of the gonococcal transmission rates will document both the collapse of the safe sex campaign, and predict the spread of HIV, as has happened precisely in this country (see figures quoted below). Meta-analysis of 11 studies of the effectiveness of condoms against HIV suggested that they were 69% protective; however of the studies
3 cited, only one of them convincingly did not include a relative risk of unity definitively suggesting useful protection26. When the relevant samples sizes in these and other studies were pooled the calculated protection was 84%. One might well argue that such a level of protection is inadequate against so lethal a disease which in addition to 30 million infected persons globally, will soon have produced 40 million orphans in Africa (by 2010) alone (by WHO data).
Because condoms are accepted as being effective against gonococcal disease the rising rates of gonococcal infection in Australia which have more than doubled 1991-2004 from 14.6 to 35.6 /100,00027 demonstrate that saturation level condom programming of populations does not work and suggests that by weakening the natural constraints of modesty against sexual activity programs which promote condom use may actually be counterproductive when applied at the population level. Indeed most STI’s are accepted as being more frequent in Australia in recent decades. This applies to the ten fold increase in warts (1973-1993)28, the five fold increase in herpes (1973-1993)28, chlamydia (where rates have tripled nationally 1991-2004 from 54.6 to 180.1 / 100,00029,30), eight fold increase in cervical pre-cancerous lesions 1970-198831, doubling of pelvic inflammatory disease (1978-1983)32 (1990-1995)33 and tripling of new cases of HIV from 100 to 283 cases in 1991-200334. Hence in the public health sense when the objective data is viewed condoms have failed by all measures with most parameters including HIV infection rising about 2-3 or more times.
Prions are proteins which have been shown in recent years to be infectious agents capable of spreading serious diseases like mad cow disease (Bovine encephalopathy) and dementia. They have been found in various species including yeast, cows and humans. The proteins can be either normal or abnormal but are believed to assemble themselves into aggregations which eventually form plaques as they crystallize and loose water. Such proteins fold abnormally in three dimensions. These plaques have been found in amyloid deposits seen in humans which occur in the various diseases including Alzheimer’s Dementia. Whilst there are many theories about the responsible processes involved in neurodegenerative disorders like Dementia, and Parkinson’s disease, an infectious cause with a protein-like agent is also a possibility. The reason this is important is that the discussion of the efficacy of condoms against various diseases usually relates to what is known from epidemiological surveys and studies of condom use, and from the physical properties of those infectious agents with latex. Just as no one has suggested that condoms will prevent skin to skin contact (in relation to warts, herpes, candida, lice, salmonella or VRE), so no one would dream of suggesting that condoms have an effect to prevent protein transmission - which may relate to chronic disorders such as dementia. Zoonoses are human diseases which come from animals, as in fact many of the major pathogens of the 20th century have done. Such disorders include HIV from the African
4 green monkey, Asian bird flu, Ebola virus, Marburg Virus, West Nile Virus, Kuru and Mad Cow Disease. The skin of the genitalia becomes engorged, swollen and very thin and absorbent like blotting paper during intercourse. The point is that we do not even know what the microbial challenges of the 21st century are as yet – some are likely to be not only non-bacterial, but also non-viral and include agents such as prions. In such a “microbiological jungle” one would be foolhardy in the extreme to trust the future of one’s self and one’s family to unknown pathogens and an uncertain rate of protection against infections where protection is almost assuredly impossible and untestable. Testing is one of the backbones of the sexual revolution. We are forever hearing calls that young people should be tested prior to entering into a sexual relationship; that they should get their partners tested, that “Oh I went to the doctor and got a test and I am all clear,” that prostitutes are carefully tested in legal brothels and have been shown to be disease free, and that HIV tests will prevent the spread of a disease which is frequently spread by sex addicts with substantial numbers of partners of varying sexual preferences. The critical question of course is “Just how good is the testing?” The short-comings of the window periods of 3-6 months for viral diseases is well known. What is less well known but nonetheless very important indeed is that most of the commonest and most serious diseases do not show up on routine testing. A moment’s reflection will demonstrate how this could be. The commonest disease is genital warts and sensitive DNA based tests have shown that it is carried by 70% of the adult population either as discrete pro-viral particles within cells, or more often encoded into the cell’s own nuclear DNA in tissues deep inside the body where tests cannot reach. These research based tests are not available in any lab in this country to my knowledge and indeed are only set up for specific scientific projects on selected research subjects. Whilst the Pap smear in females can detect a small number of the total population burden of HPV disease there is in fact no reliable and readily available test for the other >95% of HPV disease. And one notes that this is the organism responsible for several major cancers in both sexes. Most patients leave the doctors office with “the all clear” rather than a diagnosis of HPV, which shows that we are routinely missing 97-99% of HPV – precancerous disease due to the severe limitations of our diagnostic capabilities. Similar comments apply to the herpes virus. Doctors do not routinely test for this agent. One lab in Sydney at the Westmead hospital does a sensitive serology test (the Western blot) although erroneous results can occur. However this test is absent from the screens most commonly ordered in Australian medicine. Contraception In the modern era with over a million Australian women on hormonal contraceptives, one can only wonder if the safety profile of these agents has been either carefully concealed or carefully camouflaged from an unsuspecting public. Although “the pill” has long been known to have a range of common side effects, nausea, weight gain, fluid retention, mood change, clots, liver enzyme changes, liver enlargement, liver nodules, liver cancers, diabetes, hypertension, strokes and heart attacks the severity and frequency of some of its most serious ones seem underappreciated. In 1996-97 the Imperial cancer research fund reviewed 59 published studies and found not only that
5 hormone replacement therapy for the mature menopausal women elevated the incidence of breast cancer35, but so too did oral contraceptives for younger women36. Of course this is not at all unsuspected because both are preparations of female hormones, and the breast and reproductive tract are both hormone sensitive tissues. Similar results have been found with elevation of the cervical cancer rates37,38,39,40. This is particularly pertinent because women on the pill have more partners because they are on the pill41,42,43. Furthermore studies of a newly identified clotting disorder, Factor V Leiden deficiency have noted that whilst women heterozygous for this gene have a 2-3 fold elevation in the risk of venous clots, homozygous women have a risk elevated several hundred fold. Of course clots which break off from the legs and travel to the lungs are known to kill people, and yet there is no attempt made to screen females for this disorder. The pill also makes it easier to get STI’s both by increasing the amount of the delicate lining tissue which lines the cervical canal to the outside world in the top of the vagina (“eversion of the cervix”) and by mildly immunosuppressing women as in pregnancy. It also has a direct biological effect increasing the HPV infectious process and may aid the malignant transformation process to cancer44. These effects are also likely to be shared by all other forms of hormonal contraception including the injection (“Depoprovera”) and the implant (“Implanon”) This issue is even included in the prescribing information legally required by the pharmaceutical company Upjohn for Depoprovera! Abortion Abortion is frequently included in the sexual menu of the sexual revolution.” The mantra seems to be that “you can always do it with contraception, and if there is a slip-up you can have an abortion.” The side effects of abortion are well known, with incomplete abortion, bleeding, infection, pain, and impaired fertility after multiple procedures being well known. What is less well known is the number of women who have serious regrets after the fact, when frequently boyfriends and husbands have left them and their life and their heart is in tatters. Breast cancer is also associated with abortion. It must be said that breast and cervical cancer are the two commonest cancers which occur in females worldwide, and together they are responsible for the deaths of over a million women annually. Dr. Joel Brind has analyzed the 14 published studies on this area and found a consistent association with of the order of a 23% elevation. Whilst that may not sound like very much, when it is applied to one of the world’s commonest tumours which not infrequently strikes young women, that implies a substantial and tragic case load. Furthermore breast cancer is known to be becoming increasingly common in the Western world, and cultural factors, such as the abortion epidemic holocaust and contraceptive plague must be held as primary suspects. This action is believed to occur because the cells of the breast are stimulated to grow by the pregnancy hormones, but the hormonal support and guidance is then collapsed after the destruction of the baby. It is this collapse and genetic destabilization of the actively multiplying and growing cells in the very act of DNA synthesis which we now understand to be so potentially devastating to the forming DNA. It is becoming very clear as the 21st century unfolds that cancer is a genetic disease.
6 As was noted earlier it is likely that hormonal contraceptive methods such as the pill also elevate the risk of breast cancer. It is likely that the effect of abortion and of hormonal contraception on breast cancer is at least additive or quite possibly multiplicative. It is no secret that in the nite clubs and on the dance floors, in the rock concerts and at the pop festivals of the “drugs sex and rock and roll” culture drugs and alcohol are used together with the sexual license. Alcohol and drugs are accepted as reducing one’s judgement and one’s inhibitions. Condom use becomes unreliable, and it is likely that many drugs such as tobacco and cannabis which are themselves associated with the induction and promotion of cancer, might be expected to synergize in the formation of hormone dependent tumours. High risk sex, risky sexual and drug behaviours, high risk partners and needle sharing become common and normative in drink and drug affected contexts, scenes and communities. CONCLUSION In summary it might be said that after 40 years of drugs sex and rock and roll the severe and chronic individual and cultural hangover has thoroughly exposed the illusions of the hyped-up marketing and the weak “nazi-like” propagandist science which has falsely pandered to the indulgent-destructive generation as being the hollow and dreadful sham that it is. The illusion and the delusion of sexual self-indulgence is responsible for far more heart ache, crime, broken families, abused children, sexual disease including AIDS and cervical cancer and almost certainly the rise of the breast cancer epidemic in Western nations which also practice hormonal contraception and abortion widely, than any other single cultural influence since World War II. One group however is not yet involved, and is not at this point responsible for this disgraceful moral, social and medical anarchy induced by our cultural lies. That is our youth – the young people entering their teenage years. That our peoples destroyed their own lives is bad enough – but what have these little ones done to deserve more of the devastation multiplied up many times for the coming generation, that they should be lied to, at their great cost? Will we not tell the truth to each other? Will we deny our dear children who must inherit our “mess in our own nest” the very knowledge they need to have a better life than we left to them? It has been truly said that “The truth will set us free.” Will anything else? Why can we not start to tell it today – to those who need it the very most? All the reports form the culture are in. It is time to live in freedom and in truth today. Having said that, and as shared by other authors in this series, traditional faithful marriage universally reverses and protects against these many ravages. Surely then, marriage with its romance, its glamour, its reproductivity, its long term rewards, its cultural enrichment, and its long term bolstering of a robust, scientific and creative society, would be at once the easiest and most delightful lifestyle option and the finest concept and ideal to propagate to our youth? When the lie of the populist myths seem so glaringly obvious, surely gracious truth beckons towards us lighting the way into our future, a future bright with hope and gladness, and burgeoning with blessing and
7 goodness. The prize is life: at stake our integrity: the prospect is peace, fruitfulness and glory. Let us therefore choose morally, choose with wisdom and choose aright. Stuart Reece.
WORD COUNT - 3325.
Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948. http://www.who.int/about/definition/en/ 2 Sorokin P 1956, “The American Sex Revolution” Porter Sargent 3 Perkins R. 1994 “Sex Work And Sex Workers” UNSW Press Chapter on “Female Prostitution” Table 8.7 P157 4 Paone D. “Continued risky injection subsequent to syringe exchange use among IDU in New York city” AIDS Education and Prevention 1997; 9(6) 505. 5 D’Augelli 1993, Am. J. Comm. Psych. 6 Mason (1990) 7 Gold R.S “Why we need to re-think aids education for gay men” AIDS . (1995) Care 7 (Suppl1) s11 8 Freidman SR “Risk Factors for HIV Seroconversion Among Out of Treatment Drug Injectors in High and Low Prevalence Cities “ Am J Epidemiol 1995; 142(8) 864. 9 Murray A. “The psychiatrist and the transgendered person.” Venereology 1997; 10(3) 158 10 Haertsch P. “Ten years experience in gender re-assignment surgery: A preliminary report.” Venereology 1997; 10(3) 166. 11 Perkins R. Commonwealth Dept. Health & Human Services, AFAO; UNSW, 1994; ISBN: 0644 35184 5 12 Perkins R. “The size of the crime of problem” Australian Institute of Criminology. J. Soc. Jus. Stud. 4:97. 13 Roland C.M. Rubber World 1993; 208:(3) P16. Fig. 1A 14 JayD. Contraception 1992; 45(2): P107 Fig. 1B 15 Clarke L.J. Contraception 1989; 39(3): P249, Fig. 2B. 16 Arnold S.G. Nature 1988; 335 P19 17 Roland C.M., Choi I.S., “Intrinsic defects & permeability of natural rubber” Rubber and Plastics News ” (12/1/1998 ) Fig. 2 18 Carey R. “A laboratory examination of standard leakage tests for surgical & examination gloves. Clinical Engineering 1989; 14(2): 133. Tables 3 & 5 PP 138, 139. 19 Carey R. (1989) “A laboratory examination of standard leakage tests for surgical & examination gloves J. Clinical Engineering 14 (2) 133; Tables 3 & 5 P 138, 139 20 Baker R.F. (1988) “Precautions when lightning strikes during the monsoon: the effect of ozone on condoms” JAMA 9/9/1988; 260 (10): 1404. 21 Steiner M. "Study to determine the correlation between condom breakage in human use and laboratory test results" Contraception 1992; 46: 279 Table 3 P 283 22 Hart G. (1996) “Sexually Transmitted Diseases in South Australia: Epidemiologic Report No. 10” Clinic 275, Adelaide, S.A. Health Commission. 23 Brisbane STD Clinic Data, Special Data Request. 24 Lyttle H., Lindsay S. (1994) “Sexually transmitted diseases & activities in New Zealand STD / Sexual Health Clinics” Venereology 7(3): 143. 25 Donovan B., “Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 Infection” Med. J. Aust. 1994; 160: 697-700. 26 Weller S. “A meta-analysis of condom effectiveness in reducing sexually transmitted HIV” Soc. Sci. Med. 1993; 36(12): 1635. 27 http://www9.health.gov.au/cda/Source/CDA-index.cfm 28 Donovan B. “Are genital warts and herpes really disappearing problems” Aust J Pub Health. 1995 29 http://www9.health.gov.au/cda/Source/Rpt_2.cfm?RequestTimeout=500 30 http://web.med.unsw.edu.au/nchecr/ Download slide set HIV/AIDS viral Hepatitis and STI’s 31 Mitchell H. “Age and time trends in the prevalence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia” Med. J. Aust. 1990; 2:252 & Additional Data 32 Garland S. “Modern management of acute pelvic inflammatory disease” Mod. Med. Aust. . Oct. 1989 P16. 33 Australian National Diagnostic Related Group Database Federal Dept. of Health & Family Services 34 http://web.med.unsw.edu.au/nchecr/ Download slide set HIV/AIDS viral Hepatitis and STI’s; Slide 1. 35 Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer “Breast cancer and hormone replacement therapy: collaborative re-analysis of data from 51 epidemiological studies of 52,705 women with breast cancer and 108,411 women without breast cancer.” Lancet (11/10/1997) 350 P 1047. From 21 countries. 36 Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer “Breast cancer and hormonal contraceptives: collaborative re-analysis of individual data on 53297 women with breast cancer & 100239 women without breast cancer from 54 epidemiological studies” Lancet 347 (22/6/1996) p 1713. From - 25 countries. 37 Gram I.T. “Oral contraceptive use and the incidence of CIN “ Am. J. Obstet. Gynaecol. 1992; 167: 40 38 Thomas D.B. “Cervical carcinoma in situ & use of depotmedroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA)” Contraception 1995; 51:25-31. WHO Collaborative Study of Neoplasia and Steroid Contraceptives. 39 Beral V. “Oral contraceptives and malignancies of the genital tract” Lancet 10/12/1988, p1331. Table 1. 1
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Reeves W.C. “Case control study of cervical cancer in Herrera province, republic of Panama” Int. J. Cancer 1985; 36:55. Moss GB, Clemetson D, D'Costa L, Plummer FA, Ndinya-Achola JO, Reilly M, Holmes KK, Piot P, Maitha GM, Hillier SL, et al. “Association of cervical ectopy with heterosexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus: results of a study of couples in Nairobi, Kenya.” J Infect Dis. 1991 Sep; 164(3):588-91. 42 Louv WC, Austin H, Perlman J, Alexander WJ. “Oral contraceptive use and the risk of chlamydial and gonococcal infections.” Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1989 Feb; 160(2):396-402. 43 Plummer FA, Simonsen JN, Cameron DW, Ndinya-Achola JO, Kreiss JK, Gakinya MN, Waiyaki P, Cheang M, Piot P, Ronald AR, et al. “Cofactors in male-female sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1.” J Infect Dis. 1991 Feb; 163(2):233-9. 44 Pater A. “Oncogenic transformation by HPV Type 16 DNA in the presence of progesterone or progestins from oral contraceptives” Am.J.Obstet.Gynaecol. 1990; 162:1099. 41