April is STD Awareness Month, and we asked you to share your STD-related stories so we could learn from your each other’s mistakes. If you have a tale involving sores, Valtrex, or a judgy gynecologist, send an email to tips@thefrisky.com. We will keep your identity anonymous.

I would like to take this opportunity to represent people with an STD that obtained it even before their first kiss. As a baby, I played with other little girls that lived in my apartment complex. They had contracted herpes from their mother, and after slobbering all over the same toys, I also contracted the virus. I have always informed my partners of the risk and always taken every precaution not to spread it.  A few years ago, when I was still with my first boyfriend (we had lost our virginities to each other), I got an outbreak of genital herpes. I found out that though we thought we were safe because he never showed any symptoms of contracting it, he was a carrier and had inadvertently given it to my nether regions.  The moral of the story is to never judge someone because of an illness they have—all they deserve is your empathy. 

Hi, I’m Dr. V.  I’m not a real doctor, I just play one on the Internet. What I am is a lady, a lady who is a fool for love! And I love nothing more than sex. My deepest desires have happily led me on many adventures in the sack, but they have also, sadly, made me one of my gyno’s most valuable players. But I’ve lived to tell the tale(s)! So, from time to time, I will dish the dirt on everything from getting freaky to getting freaked out. Now, let’s get this party started…

April is STD Awareness Month, but I can tell you, I, Dr. V, do not need a special month to become aware of STDs.  Unfortunately, I’ve had brushes with almost every bacteria and virus in Bum Town.  What can I say, I’m a Frisky gal who has challenged a lot of cowboys to whip out their guns.  So, over the course of this month I’ll be speaking up about some of my more dangerous showdowns.

April is STD Awareness Month, and we asked you to share your STD-related stories so we could learn from your each other’s mistakes. If you have a tale involving sores, Valtrex, or a judgy gynecologist, send an email to tips@thefrisky.com. We will keep your identity anonymous.

I picked it up from a girl one drunken, unprotected night at the New Jersey Shore (figures) over Labor Day weekend. Symptoms appeared, on schedule, the morning of the fourth day. While there wasn’t any discharge, urinating was excruciatingly painful—like no other pain I have felt before or since. It was so painful that I stupidly refrained from urinating for about 24 hours. At that point the pain from my swollen bladder began overwhelming the pain I would felt while urinating, so I starting going in little spurts. That was taking too long, so I decided to try to numb my penis by placing it in a bowl of ice water. Again, dumb idea. Not only was that separately excruciating, it did nothing to ease the pain of my inflamed urethra.

Passing along the info to your new honey that you’ve got an STD is something you’re probably looking forward to about as much as attending your nephew’s 5th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Need hints on how to deliver the dirty truth? We asked Jill Grimes, M.D., author of Seductive Delusions: How Everyday People Catch STDs for some tips, after the jump…

MTV wants to protect you from the skanks you see on their station. To commemorate STD Awareness Month, they’ve launched a safe-sex campaign. And they’re so down with the kids, they’re speakin’ their language, their cell phone language, that is. The new initiative is called “It’s Your Sex Life,” with a focus on GYT—that’s how you’d text someone “get yourself tested.” Yikes, shouldn’t that be a phone call or at least an e-card?  Anyway, they kicked off their crotch crusade with “Pedro,” a biopic about Pedro Zamora, the HIV positive cast member from the third season of “The Real World.” But, all month long you can look forward to PSAs from the likes of Santogold, the Maddens, and N.E.R.D. Plus, Beth Ditto will be answering sex questions in a segment called, “Ask Beth.”  Wow, the safe sex push plus MTV promising to play music videos—it’s like 1994 all over again!

Hooray! It’s STD Awareness Month! We’ve never met an STD we weren’t simultaneously repulsed and fascinated by, which is why we’ll be unveiling the five things you need to know about the most common STDs for your awareness and enjoyment. First up, THE HERPS.

April is STD Awareness Month, and we’re going to be posting about things like chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, and more all month long. Knowledge is power, people, and if you’ve learned something the hard way (through personal experience or from dating someone with an STD), we’d love for you to share your story with The Frisky. If you have/have had an STD and would be willing to tell us about it, please email tips@thefrisky.com. We’re more than happy to keep your identity anonymous.

After all the time and energy we devoted to STD Awareness Month, which we bid a fond farewell today, how much did you really learn about sexually transmitted diseases? We sent Lori out to quiz people on the street about their knowledge of infections.

Sex and sketch comedy go together like penis and vagina.  And the good people at Planned Parenthood of Portland, Oregon get both apparently.  While the health videos we watched in high school were dull, outdated, and often gross, their take on taking care of down there features cool hotties and is laugh out loud awesome.  Especially the silly “Down There Song”, which has made us want to rename the vag and dub it the “hot pocket.” So check out the site and use a condom!

1. Chlamydia is really common, but I don’t think anyone I know has told me they’ve had it. But they must have told someone, because Chlamydia is the most frequently reported STD in the US. In 2006, there were over a million reported cases. Eww. Teenagers and young women are more susceptible to infection because the cervix has not fully matured and gets infections more easily. Careful out there, Hannah Montana!

I’ve already told you I’ve had HPV. I’ve managed to steer clear of any other STIs, but I know many people who have had herpes, crabs, gonorrhea, or chlamydia. What about you? Take our poll—don’t worry, all results are of course anonymous.

You got a sex question? Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know!  The website, run by Ivy League lovers at Columbia University, lets anyone anonymously ask a team of Health Service experts questions about sex, drugs, relationships, and even nutrition. The 15-year-old site posts all their answers on topics from Adderall’s affect on your sex drive to how to have phone sex. So, don’t be shy with your questions, Alice isn’t at all old fashioned. She’s just chock full of good clean advice for getting down and dirty.

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall people in a single bound….no it’s not Superman. It’s super bacterium gonorrhea! The microscopic crotch grabber is the strongest organism on the planet and much like promiscuous lovers, it can pull more than its fair share of tail, or, in this case, pili.  Forget about bending steel, these little bacteria buggers can drag 100,000 times their body weight which is basically like a human hauling 22 million pounds of crap (or Carrie Bradshaw’s shoe rack). 

STD Awareness Month has got us thinking about which STDs we consider the worst (besides AIDS, because, c’mon)—I vote for gonorrhea, personally. But then I wonder about dudes, and how much they really know about STDs. Do they know enough to vote for the worst? Their responses, after the jump.

Oh my god, CRABS. Aren’t they beautiful?
1. Pubic lice aka crabs, do not have feet. They have CLAWS, hence the whole crab thing. Without feet they can’t actually walk across any surface, but they do sort of swing from hair to hair. Like a tiny, tiny Tarzan, if you will.

Happy STD Awareness Month! “VD is for Everybody” is a public service announcement from way back in the day. In case you’re not aware, VD is short for venereal diseases, which is what they called STDs before the 1990s. In the video, you learn that ballet dancers, equestrians, violinists, pregnant women who knit, and men who jog in gray sweat suits are all capable of getting VD, because “VD is for everybody, not just boys or girls.” Watch and learn.