South bend, Indiana- Despite the slumping economy, sales at adult novelty shops are up.

Store employees say a combination of the holidays and the cold weather is drawing more people into their stores.

But health officials say that booming business comes at the cost of spreading more sexually transmitted diseases.

“Sex is always going to sell no matter what the economy is like,” said Temptations & Teasers Manager Amber Williams.

Adult store Manager Amber Williams says that the sex industry is recession proof because people are using sex as a coping mechanism.

“They’re trying to get the happiness back in when they’re trying not to think about bills or other things that are going on with the world,” said Williams.

A recent report shows that births spike in the month of September because love is in the air during the holiday season.

“It’s more of being more flirtatious, kind of flirty, maybe trying to spice things up,” said Williams.

Condoms and other sex industry items tend to sale more throughout the holiday season, but Miller says this year has been better than ever before.

“We’ve broke records here for the past three years. Every month we’re beating the record and the store has been in business for 30 years.” said Williams.

And as the adult industry sales continue to skyrocket, so does the rate of sexually transmitted diseases.

“Nowadays it’s out there. Everybody knows about it. They know it’s part of life and they know you don’t die from it like you use to,” said Elkhart County Health Department Communicable Diseases Supervisor Beth Hewitt-Hutson.

Hewitt-Hutson says that it isn’t a lack of information, but people are just being careless, especially the youth.

“A lot of teenagers just think, “Oh it’ll never happen to me,” said Hewitt-Hutson.

And the numbers are alarming. The Syphilis transmission rate in Elkhart County is up 125% from 2007. And the HIV rate has more than doubled.

“I do think that people are more accepting of it. Maybe people just don’t listen,” said Hewitt-Hutson.

So as you snuggle up in front of the fire or stay in on a snow day, Hewitt-Hutson has age some practical advice.

“Use a condom, always, always,” said Hewitt-Hutson.