We get it: No one likes to talk about sexually transmitted infections . If things are getting hot and heavy, nothing tosses a bucket of cold water over a sexual encounter quite like saying STI .

But in the age of super gonorrhea , its super important we have these conversations. Last year, we heard the first reports of super gonorrhea , a strain of the disease so gnarly its resistant to the antibiotic drugs usually prescribed to treat it. Oh, joy.

Thats not the only STI you have to worry about. The U.S. has the highest STI rates in the industrialized world, and its only getting worse. Nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were diagnosed in the U.S. in 2017, surpassing the record set in 2016 by more than 200,000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in August. (FYI: Were using STI here as opposed to STD because not all sexually transmitted infections turn into a disease.)

Its scary because a shockingly high percentage of Americans know little, if anything, about STDs and STIs, said Robert Huizenga , a physician and the author of Sex, Lies and STDS. Few people have any idea what early STD symptoms to look out for, even if symptoms do occur, because many STDs present with no symptoms .

Part of the blame for the uptick in STIs lies in our incredibly lax use of contraceptives . A 2017 National Health Statistics Report found that condom use in the U.S. has declined among sexually active young people, with many opting to use the pullout method instead.

The rate of men who say they use withdrawal pulling out a partners vagina before ejaculating increased from about 10% in 2002 to 19% by 2015, according to a recent study published by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Half-assed methods of protection aside, were also dealing with a lack of transparency and conversation about STIs. How are we going to get our abysmal STI rates down if we dont feel comfortable talking openly and honestly about our sexual health with our partners?

Ideally, your new S.O. or hookup buddy will alert you to any hiccups in their sexual history before you have to bring it up. (If you have an STI, we wrote a very helpful primer on how to tell your partner about it, which you can read here .)

But in the event that they dont, its 100% worth speaking up. Below, sexual health educators share their best advice on how to broach the subject in a way that isnt a total mood killer.

Ideally, bring it up before things start to heat up.