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November 12, 2008
Q&A: Austin doctor tells why she wrote the book on STDs
Dr. Jill Grimes said she wrote her first book about STDs, of all things, out of frustration. She was struck by how many patients — often young, attractive professionals — didn’t believe they’d get a sexually transmitted disease if they picked the “right” person. Grimes, a board-certified family practice doctor at West Lake Family Practice, says those folks have “seductive delusions,” the title of her book. Anyone can get an STD, she says.
Grimes, a 43-year-old part-time doctor, wife of an anesthesiologist, associate editor of a medical textbook and mother of two girls, talked about “Seductive Delusions: How Everyday People Catch STDs.” It’s being published by Johns Hopkins University Press and just came out in bookstores. Here’s a slightly edited transcript:
Q: After each chapter you have a fact sheet that says the only sure way to prevent this STD is to be abstinent. Is that realistic?
A: That’s a good question. I did not write this book to be pro-abstinence. I think every family has their own moral and religious foundation. My purpose was to give the facts. The bottom line is that the only way you can be 100 percent sure is by being abstinent. If condoms were 100 percent effective in preventing the transmission of all STDs, then I would have said that. They do a great job on several diseases, but condoms are only effective … in real life usage only 80 percent of time.
Q: You’re pretty down on them.
A: That was not my intent. The problem is, if you use condoms, people think that’s safe sex. If you use condoms for oral sex that would be great but very few people do.
Q: There’s been a lot of debate about abstinence education in the schools. Do you advocate that?
A: Actually, I don’t. If it were effective, I wouldn’t have to write this book. If we were going to teach kids not to smoke, we don’t say, ‘Don’t smoke.’ We teach them by saying it causes bad teeth and bad breath. We talk about cancer and emphysema, and we list 30 facts for them and we hope they say, ‘Huh, I don’t I want to smoke.’ Yet when it comes to sex education, we say, ‘Don’t have sex.’ And I think we need to give a lot more information than that, whether we’re a family that’s promoting abstinence or not.
Q: You believe the schools should provide information about contraceptives?
A: Yes, and if not about contraceptives then about the diseases and how they’re transmitted. The kind of sex education I’m promoting is not a religious or a moral issue. I’m trying to give facts. I’m trying to stay out of right and wrong. From all of the tears shed in my office, I can tell you people don’t know (the facts).
Q: Are the patients in your book real individuals or are they composites?
A: The cases are composites.
Q: What one message do you want people to take from this?
A: I want people to look in the mirror and know that their peers, whomever they are, their peers potentially have STDs and they need to take precautions.
Q: Should anyone who is planning to be intimate with someone be tested and show that person the test results?
A: Showing the results is a trust issue…but that’s what I would do.
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