How to shed the "STD" label
 

My wife and I are starting to plan for our retirement in a few years and The Villages is one of our options. When I mention this this to other people the first words out their mouth is a comment about STD's. I know the story has been blown out of proportion but how do you stop the negative comments. Even my wife makes jokes about it. Right now the Villages is #1 on my list ( not that my vote counts) as I am a golf teaching professional and when I retire I want to PLAY golf as much as I can> Hope to see you all in a few years.

The first thing our doctor said to us when we said we were moving down here was.."You better buy body condoms!" Do you know how bad the STD & HIV rate is down there? We already knew, but then she backed it up with facts.

The best way to shed the STD label is for people to clean up their acts.

:1rotfl: Really I cannot imagine that a population that probably contains a higher than average rate of people who have been happily married for many years would have a STD/HIV problem.

I would suggest that those individuals making such outlandish statements back them up with statistics.....as my boyhood hero says Ïcan't stands no more.:spoken:

I would answer "small price to pay for free golf for the rest of my life." You will never convince them otherwise so have some fun with it.

Oops I live a sheltered life. While I do love women i have only been in love with one woman my whole life...now I see that it was good for my health too.

Oversexed 60's gosh I don't even want to think about it. Walk through the park are my style. Sway on the dance floor are my style

What our doctor did was to pull up the current CDC numbers in her office while we sat there. She has relatives living in TV and she's well aware of the situation down here. Her degree is from Johns Hopkins and you can't get one of those out of a Cracker Jack box. (Can't get a Coupe DeVille in one either! LOL) Since my wife is an NP she has access to the same information. I believe them both. No reason not to.

A lot of people want to think that TV is nirvana. If you like the lifestyle, it's a fine place, but it is not free of the various social things that plague our nation.

Knowledge is power.

I'm thinking the less attention you give the myth the better???

Colleen McQuade was the gyn that made a statement in 2006 while being interviewed by channel 6 news. She basically said she treated more STD cases in the Villages then when she practiced in Miami. But if you look at the actual data on STD's by county, you can compare for yourself and refute the rumor. Just use this link and go to the bottom section...Reported STD's by county, click on any year and compare Sumter, Lake, and Marion to Miami/Dade.....not even close.
I read that the gyn later recanted her statement.....but that didn't make the headlines.

Florida STD Trends

That was the very first comment many said to me when I said I was moving to TV. I finally got so annoyed that I started saying "good thing they discovered penicillin" followed by "give me a break".

...

Well what it looks like to me is that village residents have got to do more bike riding and less.............................................. .........

I think you need to look at this in the context is of the OP's original question, is the STD problem worse in the Villages than in any other retirement areas?

If you use the relatively old statistics that someone inserted here on a previous post(no pun intended) then Villages shows less instances of STD increases than the Arizona area and slightly more than California. The numbers the Villages were lumped in and included multiple central Florida counties and 55+ communities

I have a daughter that is a nurse practitioner/ midwife, she has access to all of those numbers too. This is a national issue for this demographic and is not a problem found only in that "wild place" know as the Villages, you know.... that place were everything closes up and the turn out the lights at 9 pm.....

I don't know and I don't care. The only behavior we have any control over is our own. If the singles are enjoying their life here, then I hope they will use protection.

Personally, I am amused by those rumors and it kinda beats the mindset that we are all dead or close to it.

Now, I might worry about moving somewhere that had the highest murder rate in the U.S., or the biggest cockroaches, or the most sinkholes, but since STDs aren't transmitted through drinking water, it wouldn't affect me or my decisions one whit.

Everyone else can have whatever fun they want, as far as I'm concerned. Maybe The Villages should change its motto to The Friskiest Home Town! (Although as others have pointed out, it's not really true, but let's not let truth get in the way of a nascent internet meme.)

I can certainly understand that it would get old hearing it, Sgt101.

If you are single and dating, this could be an issue, albeit it's also an issue anywhere. If you are happily married and contemplating retiring to TV, whether those statistics are true or not won't affect you.

If you should become single and begin your dating life anew, its something to keep in mind.

Otherwise, who cares what the rumors are? Anyone who mentions that to you is rude and doesn't deserve a response. I grew up in Pittsburgh and am constantly being harangued with prejudiced, uninformed, out-of-date comments about the condition of my hometown. I just ignore them. Let them feel stupid when they find out differently, and that has happened quite a bit, as people who have necessarily had to visit have been gracious enough to let me know their new opinions.

You can't change someone's mind that was made up from ignorance, so ignore the statements.

Can STD's be passed along on a bike seat??

G-Person...while it doesn't effect you or others who keep their parts & pieces to themselves, it DOES work it's way into your healthcare costs and local taxes as county health boards have to spend more money for the effects, education, treatment and other items that are needed for stemming the tide.

Of course the story is nonsense, but whenever somebody needles me with it, my retort is: "Hey that is just advertising propaganda promulgated by the Developer to try to sell more homes." That usually puts an end to the conversation.

Good one.:pepper2:

Well..it's not exactly just single people who are dating. There is a very active "swinging" community within TV. There are a number of websites that are easily accessed where you can find all sorts of married TVers looking for a night of fun. And NO..that's NOT a rumor.

:a20::a20::a20:

It's surprising to see how many people don't seem to know that sexual contact is needed to acquire an STD, and if you don't do it with strangers you won't get one.

Yep. :agree:

Would you care to share any of those websites?

If it were, say, something airborne, that was easily transmitted by just being out in public, it might concern me. However, STD's are something you can make choices to avoid. I see zero risk to many of us. I'm not worried in the slightest. You may not have heard that many folks here are NOT drunken and promiscuous. It's just more exciting to read about aberrant behavior.

SwingLife, SwapperNet, Craigslist/Ocala. Happy reading.

amen!!!

For a number of years, every February the New York Post ran a story on STDs in The Villages. It was the same re-hash each time. While I don't know for certain, I suspect that the reporter was visiting her parents here and by writing the story she was able to get a tax deduction on her travel expenses.

After mentioning that I was moving to TV, a friend at work made the standard STD remark, followed by..."I also hear they're getting a McDonalds". When I hear such things, I just laugh on the inside and imagine what they'd think if they saw what TV was really like. No use trying to explain it to them though. :^)

I find that people who are jealous of other people or where they live or what they have try to put them down anyway they can. Just roll with the innuendoes and in your own mind think to yourself how lucky we are to live in such a great place as the villages.

I have to laugh at this thread--posting the numbers by county? Hmm, As a Registered Nurse (with NO STDs thank you) --is also surprised most people think STDs only come from sex. I am not going to discuss Health Education-but do your own research..some STDs don't go away. We live in a retirement community--maybe they brought the disease to the county and that is truly what increased the numbers? Just a thought....

Nowhere on the CDC website is there any breakdown of STI rates by small locations. There is no way your Johns Hopkins doctor could ever have looked up what you claimed. How about you email her and ask for the exact link where she "found" that data so I can also see it. Additionally your wife being an NP means nothing as there is NO restricted access by profession to anything on the CDC's website so she gets no secret hidden information to pass on to you that anyone without a medical background cannot also find. So the entire premise of the post is erroneous and I suspect perhaps confabulated.

Sumter county is 64th in STI rates of the 67 counties in Florida. The correct information is readily available and requires that you open the excel link for "Rates by Year/County/Disease" at Florida STD Trends

Thus whatever "data" you claim to have seen would clearly show that Sumter County (there is NO data specific to the Villages as it is in 3 counties and has no independently reporting authority) has an extremely LOW reported incidence of STI's

Absolutely. The ignorant, jealous jerks at our condo were always pushing our buttons for leaving. Misery loves company. We were moving on with our lives, and they were stuck there.

Sumter has very very low std risk
 

Sorry Bike, you are not correctly reading/interpreting the data.

You have given the numbers from column T which is the ranking by county of STD's per 100,000 population. Thus Miami/Dad is the 25th worst county for cases per 100,000. It is not that they have only 25 cases per 100,000 as in fact they have 496 cases/100K

Sumter county ranks 64th out of 67 (not 62nd) and its rate is 238/100K. For the worst... Gadsden with 1325/100K but only 721 total cases in a small county. The best at county at #67 is Lafayette with 192/100K

Column R gives the rate of STD's per 100K which is the best data for giving the incidence of disease, column S the rank by total cases where obviously the larger counties will have more total cases.

If there are some who would like help reading the excel chart I will reply, otherwise the take home message is the Sumter County is one of the lowest risk places in the state for STD's contrary to the OP's postings.

This STD rumor is just that, an oft repeated canard

Now let's play nice.

As a single, at 60 connection is more important than sex. Yeah sex is great and if we get to that point it's time for a romantic date to get tested...for the safety of both of us.

I'm always leery of reports that give percentages without the raw numbers. When they claim STDs increased by 70%, they need to report the data. Was it 10 cases last year and now 17? Or was it 1000 cases and now 1700? Both show an increase of 70%, but are much different. And someone saying they have treated more here than Miami without data to back it up is doesn't mean much.

Excellent! Very well put!!!


Isn't THIS the truth?!


This explanation, which is absolutely accurate, has been given time and time again, yet people get so obsessive about STDs that they ignore it. Why? Maybe there are those who wish to ignore it for their reasons....


True 'nuff!


I knew those initial figures were ridiculous and made absolutely no sense. They reminded me of what I would expect from the Orlando Slantinel. Thanks for setting the record straight and clarifying it!


Cases of STDs MUST be reported, county by county. So when the number of cases in one year of one particular STD rose from 2 to 4 (this was several years ago), the naysayers cited that "STD rates in The Villages [even though, as pointed out, records are kept by county, not by TV...] have DOUBLED!!!" How stupid do they think we are?!

Then again, how stupid they must be! Just ignore the nonsense and have a good life!

They are gutless and afraid to make even the slightest change to their boring lives.

I remember telling somone that we were relocating to The Villages, and his comment was "I hear that it a very lascivious place". I have never heard anyone ever use that word in a sentence!

Gracie, I sure wish I had your talent for expressing myself! What you said here is what I feel. You put it in such nice terms.