Eastern students who snuggle up with someone special, or random, on these cold winter nights can choose from a number of ways to do so safely.

Health Service and local Planned Parenthood branches offer condoms and other popular contraceptives for free or at a discount and both provide screening for sexually transmitted infections.

Latex condoms are available six for $1 at Health Service, and monthly hormonal birth control methods like the Pill, Ortho-Evra patches and the Nuva Ring are $15 per month at the pharmacy.

A screening for STIs at health service checks for a full battery of infections, including some that aren’t always sexually transmitted.

“With a lot of these infections, the symptoms are similar,” said head nurse Juanetia Shrader.

The exams check for yeast infections, trichomanisis and bacterial vaginosis in addition to gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis, Shrader said. People with lesions or sores can be tested for human papilloma virus (HPV) and herpes. Shrader said Health Service usually recommend students get HIV testing at the Coles County Health Department, where the cost is minimal.

The Planned Parenthood centers in Champaign and Effingham distribute free condoms and offer full STI screenings, said Kathy Spegal, director of community affairs for Planned Parenthood of East Central Illinois.

Anyone older than 17 who gets a pelvic exam at Planned Parenthood will automatically be checked for chlamydia, a curable but very rampant STI. Coles County tallied 118 cases of chlamydia in 2002, compared to only 16 cases of gonorrhea in the same year.

“Chlamydia has the highest incidence of any STI,” Spegal said. “The 17 to 24-year-olds are the largest age group of people infected.”

Other infections, like syphilis, are far less common. Pockets of infections can still pop up though. Spegal said Vermilion County, the home of Danville and about 83,000 people, has had a recent outbreak of syphilis. Peoria had a similar outbreak in the mid-90s, but now records only one or two cases per year, according to Illinois State Health Department statistics.

“People become complacent, but you can still catch (syphilis),” Spegal said. Coles County had one case between 1992 and 2002, in 1997.

Even curable STIs, like chlamydia, syphilis, gonorrhea and others, can cause complications if left untreated, Spegal said. Women can develop pelvic inflammatory disease and both sexes can become sterile because of infections left unchecked.

Screenings for most other STIs can be done by request during the pelvic exam, but tests for infections like syphilis and HIV must be conducted by drawing blood.

An STI screening isn’t unlike a routine pelvic exam, Spegal said. The vagina is held open with a speculum and swabbed.

Several methods are used to check males for STIs, the most common being a swabbing of the urethra, similar to a vaginal swabbing.

At Health Service, many STI test results are batched together and processed every two or three weeks to save money, Shrader said. Some tests, like gonorrhea cultures, must sit for 72 hours before being tested. Test results for herpes are available the same day of the exam and HPV test results are ready before the patient leaves the office.

Shrader recommends people getting tested for STIs should not have sex for at least two weeks before going in for tests to ensure accuracy. Women should not make appointments to be tested during their period. Men are asked not to urinate for a few hours before the test.

The cost of the tests at Health Service is $20 to cover lab fees and can be billed to a student’s account.

Spegal said sexually active people ought to use condoms during anal and oral sex too, not just during vaginal intercourse, to better protect against infection.

Shrader said latex condoms are the most effective, and using them with a spermicide may inhibit transmission of STIs.

Many STIs are asymptomatic, meaning an infected person may not have any signs of illness. But anyone with itching, lesions or discharge or other genital discomfort should get checked, according to Planned Parenthood’s Web site.

Spegal recommends using condoms in combination with another form of birth control, such as birth control pills, to better protect against pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood in Champaign also offers emergency contraception, a pill or set of pills given to women after unprotected intercourse, condom failure or sexual assault.

The pills are made of synthetic hormones like birth control pills and can prevent fertilization or implantation. They will not cause an abortion if the person is already pregnant.

Emergency contraception pills can be purchased in advance of an emergency by visiting www.ppeci.org. The cost for the online ordering service is $28, and the pills are an additional $24 when picked up at the Champaign center. Illinois is one of fewer than 10 states to offer such a service.

Women must be tested for pre-existing pregnancy at Health Service before being prescribed emergency contraception pills. Both Health Service and Planned Parenthood use the Plan B brand of pills because of a lower likelihood of side effects.

Either way, women can use the pills within 72 hours of unprotected intercourse, although the pills are more effective the sooner they are used.

In addition, Planned Parenthood stocks and prescribes birth control pills, patches, rings and shots, as well as intrauterine devices (IUDs) that release hormones. The Champaign center offers medical abortions, those facilitated with Mifepristone pills, as well as surgical abortions.

The Condom Club, an outgrowth of BACCHUS peer education network, distributes condom packages to students who undergo training on proper condom use.

Students who attend a meeting of the Condom Club learn the different types of condoms and how to use them right. They are quizzed on the differences between latex, polyurethane and animal skin condoms and must demonstrate the 21 steps to proper condom use before they can get free packages.

Condoms are picked up in the Health and Education Resource Center in the Student Services Building once a student has completed the training, which typically takes less than an hour.