Nicole Fierro Guest Speaker Write Up: Tom Maloney 10/28/10

Hon. Ind. & Fam. Dev. Block 1

Today my classmates and I were fortunate enough to have Tom Mahoney, renowned
doctor who specializes with STD’s for twenty-two years now at the Greenwich
Department of Health. Dr. Mahoney accomplished the impossible in answering our
seemingly endless questions using every minute of our class time. He took the time
to address each question no matter how obvious or gruesome the answer was. He
covered various STD’s that girls our age unfortunately are not well educated about.
He answered thoroughly and interactively keeping each student active and
interested in a topic that is not recognized as pleasant. To keep the students
involved Dr. Mahoney used the white board writing down shocking statistics and
percentages, he would ask us to make educated guesses about male and female’s
differing responses to transmitted diseases making us think, and he also left the
discussion open to questions that he did not have a chance to prepare answers for
and for our comments about the information he presented us with.

The three STD’s that Mr. Mahoney mainly focused on were Gonorrhea,
Chlamydia, and HIV/Aids. He started the discussion by answering the first question;
if women have HIV/AIDS are they able to reproduce? He answered this question in
stating that yes, they are capable of reproducing but according to the laws of
Connecticut and New York and thirty one other states, women that are HIV/Aids
positive must take treatment medications to reduce the chance of the baby getting
the STD. In addition to the required medication this law also requires that all
pregnant woman take a prenatal test after six months. These tests can be collected
in a blood test or in a new method a chemical swab. The chemical swab consists of a
pad that has chemicals on it that when rubbed on a humans gum, releases
antibody’s for testing. The blood test is 99.6% reliable while the swab is 99.4%
making them both highly accurate indications. He explained that women in the 17
states that do not take this medication have babies that have a 25-30% risk of
receiving this STD. In contrast, women’s children that do take the medication have a
low 2-5% risk after the baby is six months old. Clearly these medications are
effective but Dr. Mahoney also told us that they are extremely expensive setting a
family back $180,000 a year. When applying this question to the STD Chlamydia, Mr.
Mahoney explained that Chlamydia enters in through a women’s cervix to the
fallopian tube that is the size of a hard speguehetti noodles. When Chlamydia
resides in the fallopian tubes it diminishes the tube making it impossible for the egg
to go through. Even though the egg can move the sperm of a male is still able to go
into the tubes making pregnancy possible. When a woman with Chlamydia is
impregnated the egg keeps on growing but does not travel leading to an explosion of
the egg that is excruciating for a women to endure. Also Chlamydia is only found
when a woman chooses to get tested for it therefore it is difficult to find.

Dr Mahoney also supplied us with useful information on his free STD and
Pregnancy testing clinic run on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3-5. These tests are
completely confidential tests. When someone has an STD they will be entered into
the state reports that only Dr. Mahoney and His boss the head of the department of
health can access. These records are for surveillance purposes. Also at Dr.
Mahoney’s clinic he gives std infected patients treating medicine for free saving
these people a lot of money and providing them with possible cures or to alleviate
the pain from the STD’s side effects. I am so grateful I got to learn so much from Dr.
Mahoney he was an exceptional guest speaker!