STI Rates Climb In NYC, Just In Time To Ruin Valentine's Day

NEW YORK CITY — Love hurts in New York City — at least according to a new study released right in time to ruin Valentine's Day.

Detections of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis all rose in 2022, the city's Sexually Transmitted Infections Surveillance Report released on Tuesday found.

The rise in sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, from 2021 is likely partly because of increased testing after the COVID-19 pandemic made such services harder to obtain, health officials said.

"As more people return to care, our detection improves," said Ashwin Vasan, the city's health commissioner, in a statement.

That's right — STIs didn't necessarily rise, but instead were likely just undetected until now.

The infection data shows the need for New Yorkers to get tested for STIs, as well use prevention tactics, for the health of themselves and their sexual partners, officials said.

And, for New Yorkers looking for fun Valentine's Day dinner conversation fodder, here are some highlights from the study:

• Chlamydia rates among men and women respectively rose 5.2 percent and 1 percent from 2021 to 2022
• The gonorrhea rate rose 10.5 percent and 15.2 percent for men and women, respectively, during the same span
• Primary and secondary syphilis rates citywide rose 3 percent during the same period. The health department opened more than 14,000 syphilis investigations during 2022
• Young women between ages 15 and 24 percent accounted for roughly 58 percent of all chlamydia cases among women
• Case rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea were roughly two times higher in very poverty neighborhoods than people who live in low poverty areas
• And, finally, the Chelsea-Clinton United Hospital Fund area — which covers a swath of western Manhattan including Midtown and Chelsea — had the highest case rates for chlamydia, gonorrhea and early syphilis.

Here are data on detected infections and case rates, organized by United Hospital Fund area: