The University of California doctors conducted a research in which they concluded that people who frequently trim their pubic hair risk contracting various sexually transmitted infections including herpes, syphilis and human papillomavirus.
The interesting research notes that if you at one time “moved the lawn”, then you have two-times high risk of contracting any of the said sexually transmitted diseases. The “extreme groomers” are even much more exposed to the risk, reports The Sun.
The extreme groomers are defined to be the people who groom more than 11 times per annum. The “high frequency groomers” on the other hand are people who trim not so often but at a considerable number of times in a month. Their risk was found to be three times than those who do not trim.
According to one of the researchers and a neurologist at the University of California, Benjamin Breyer, their research findings were quite surprising. He said that they cannot independently verify that grooming is responsible for rise in the STD cases. “All we can say is that they’re correlated. But I probably would avoid an aggressive shave right before having sex.”
Major STD Infections
The infections affecting the skin, majorly Syphilis and HPV were found to be the most common STD infections for the aggressive groomers. This link wasn’t that clear for other sexually transmitted infections like gonorrhea and lice. In any case, the lice rely on hair for them to breed thus grooming could be used as control mechanism.
A student of STDs in college students at Georgia College & State University, Scott Butler, expressed his enthusiasm over the study. He added that it is vital for the healthcare providers to be informed of such kind of findings.
A set of limitations
But Butler could not steer away from the fact that the study itself also has its own set of limitations. For example, the study experts ignored some factors like whether the participants engaged in safe sex or not. Neither did they seek to find out if they had been diagnosed before or not.
Gunter said that pubic hair has a special role in the body. It protects just like the eyebrows, trapping bacteria and debris. Removing such has a set of health consequences.