The ground floors of Marchetti Towers are home to a tanning spa, a copy shop and in a nook in the east tower, the Student Health and Counseling Services. Walking into the small waiting room, a student might expect to see only peers with flu symptoms trying to escape math classes. The average student might not realize that sexual healthcare is available at the office as well. Nancy Z. Delany, M.D., sees student patients in the office that resembles, well, any other doctor’s office.
Students can be tested for Sexually Transmitted Diseases in the office, receive regular pelvic exams and pregnancy testing.
Delany said that students with concerns about STDs “usually come in with a concern about something that’s different.” On the whole, however, she said, “I think probably people are pretty oblivious to STDs, which is why they’re generally contracted. The phrase is, you sleep with whomever your partner has slept with. It’s an uncomfortable way to look at it, and it’s true.”
“People think they have to have actual vaginal-penile intercourse to get an STD. You don’t. It is possible to contract STDs like herpes, warts and gonorrhea from oral sex. For women, another major risk factor is cervical cancer.”
Delany also said that people think you need to have symptoms in order to have an STD. This is wrong, she warns, and said that if not diagnosed, STDs can cause sterility. “It’s currently recommended that all sexually active women who come in for a Pap smear have STD tests. Any person who’s going to be sexually active, I’d recommend that they and their partner be screened.”
Most Catholic universities in the United States do not provide the birth control pill for contraceptive purposes at their university health centers.
“We do provide birth control pills for medical purposes, and we can refer for birth control. Saint Louis University is a Jesuit university, and we don’t prescribe birth control pills and we don’t have a bowl of condoms in the waiting room … I do believe that students are having sex and I will advise them to protect themselves.”
Other clinics in the area, including Planned Parenthood, offer sexual healthcare. Delany cited the St. Louis Health Department as an example. Some SLU students choose to go to Planned Parenthood because it is close and inexpensive. Other students choose to look elsewhere because Planned Parenthood’s offices also house a clinic that provides abortions.
A brightly painted Volkswagen Beetle sits in the full parking lot of the Planned Parenthood location on Forest Park Avenue. It is decorated with condom-centered daisies and sits as a cheery contrast to the plain, painted brick building that houses Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis headquarters.
Many students from SLU are familiar with the building, whether they come for information, health care or to picket.
Mary M. Kogut, director of health services for Planned Parenthood, said that 60 percent of the clinic’s clients are college-age–from 18-24. A government-subsidized clinic, Planned Parenthood has operated in St. Louis for more than 70 years. Kogut said that the clinic prides itself on providing affordable sexually transmitted infection testing, birth control, pregnancy testing, emergency contraception and exams for both men and women.
Kogut said that many university students are “interested in having a very effective form of birth control, knowing which ones work well, which ones don’t … Cost is a big issue, and we’re very lucky to have both state and federal funds that can help us to provide care at zero cost, onto a sliding fee scale,” Kogut said.
Planned Parenthood offers a variety of forms of birth control, including the patch and injected contraceptives.
Karen Omvig, director of education for Planned Parenthood, said that the clinic does outreach in the community. The majority of the population they educate is students under the age of 18. There is also currently a program at local universities like Harris Stowe and UMSL providing HIV testing.
Omvig said that university students seek counseling about “communication and negotiation of contraceptive methods.” She said students often seek counseling about approaching their partners about their STD and sexual history.
Omvig said that it’s a misconception that all students enter college with a good knowledge of sexual health, “It would be helpful if universities looked at sexual health as a life-long skill. So why couldn’t they offer a seminar on sexual health issues to freshmen? Promote their philosophy or their beliefs within their university, but give students info or skills to be able to make these decisions when they become sexually active, because at some point, they will.”
