If you are planning to be a sexually active person, you ought to learn about STDs. There are many sexually transmitted diseases, and you don’t necessarily need to have intercourse with someone to contract some of them. Some STDs might annoy you, but others can be quite serious or fatal.
If you learn about common STDs before entering the dating scene, that’s always a good thing. We’ll take a few moments to talk about some STDs, and we’ll go over the three most common categories that exist.
The term sexually transmitted disease (STD) is used to refer to a condition passed from one person to another through sexual contact. You can contract an STD by having unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who has the STD. That doesn’t mean sex is the only way STDs are transmitted. Depending on the specific STD, infections may also be transmitted through sharing needles and breastfeeding.
An STD may also be called a sexually transmitted infection (STI) or venereal disease (VD).
Bacterial STDs
Bacterial STDs are one of the three most common varieties. They include things like:
- Syphilis
- Chlamydia
- Gonorrhea
People contract millions of these cases every year. For instance, in 2018, the CDC reported over 1,500,000 chlamydia cases.
Transmission ease is one of the reasons why there are so many bacterial STD cases. You can usually spread a bacterial STD, like gonorrhea, through vaginal, oral, or anal sex.
If you catch gonorrhea, it can infect the eyes, penis, throat, mouth, or vagina. You might have heard some individuals refer to it as the clap, though historians are uncertain how it picked up that name.
Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States.
Parasitic STDs
Parasitic STDs are another variety. Some examples are:
- Pubic lice
- Trichomoniasis
There are several parasitic STD avoidance methods. Using condoms is one of the most obvious ones. You can also be monogamous. If you have more sexual partners, it makes it more likely you can catch an STD.
If you have some discomfort when you urinate or have sex, that could mean you have a parasitic STD, such as trichomoniasis. You might experience genital itching or have a frothy, thin discharge with a foul odor.
If a doctor figures out you have a parasitic STD, antibiotics can usually treat it. You can swallow a pill, and sometimes it only takes a single dose to get rid of it.
Viral STDs
If you’re talking about HIV or herpes, those are viral STDs. The easiest way to avoid them is not to have sex. However, you can also get a vaccine to prevent some viral STDs, such as HPV.
You can also use condoms, which are not effective one hundred percent of the time if your partner has a viral STD, but they can help significantly. You can reduce your sexual partner number. You might agree to be mutually monogamous with another person.
Getting Yourself Tested
You should get yourself tested frequently, but even more so if you have multiple sexual partners or you have had unprotected sex recently. There are broad-spectrum tests that can reveal many STDs, whether viral, bacterial, or parasitic.
Half of all sexually active young adults get an STD by the age of 25 years.
If you feel at all nervous or embarrassed about going to your family doctor, you can always head to a private facility. You can arrange an appointment online and go to one of their locations. They should get you the results within 24-72 hours in many cases.
If you discover you’re positive for anything, you can talk about treatment at that point. You will probably need to bring your primary doctor in on it at some point.
Remember that they cannot reveal any private details about your health status to anyone who you don’t want to know about it, like a partner, your parents, your employer, etc. You can share that information with the people whom you choose, and only them.
The top 10 STDs that are mostly seen are as follows
- Genital shingles (Herpes Simplex)
- Human papillomavirus (Genital warts)
- Hepatitis B
- Chlamydia
- Chancroid (Syphilis)
- Clap (Gonorrhea)
- Human immunodeficiency virus/Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS)
- Trichomoniasis (Trich)
- Bacterial vaginosis
- Pubic lice
Sexual Responsibility
Some people are very blasé about their sex lives. They might have multiple partners, and there is nothing wrong with that unless they consistently don’t get themselves tested and they have unprotected sex.
You should try to protect yourself as much as possible. Sometimes you might not have protection, and you might decide to do something sexual with someone. It happens. Maybe you’re both under the influence at the time, and you let your feelings get the better of you.
What can you do to stay safe?
- Use condoms and use them correctly
- Access reliable sexual health education sources
- Seek timely testing and treatment if you are at risk
- Remember that most sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have no symptoms
- Limit casual sex and use condoms with a new partner
- Have sex with only one person, which may reduce your risk of STD
- Get tested for STDs between partners and after unprotected sex if you feel you may be at risk of having been infected or re-infected
- Talk about the potential risk of acquiring STDs with your partner
- Make informed choices about the level of risk you are comfortable taking with your sex life
- If you are pregnant and are at a risk of STDs, it is important to get tested and treated before your baby is born.
- Reinfection is common even after successful treatment.
- Make sure your partners get treated to prevent reinfection
The thing is, though, if that occurs, you need to get tested as soon as possible, and you should try to learn from the experience. Maybe it happened just one time, and you avoided pregnancy and STDs, but you might not be so lucky again.
If you feel like you’re going to be sexual with someone, bring a condom along on your dates, or always have one handy. You might also look into dental dams and other protective devices.
There’s no reason you should not have an active sex life, but the more careful you are, the better it is for you and those about whom you care.
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