Sexually transmitted diseases
Okay, so as much as it stinks, there are a TON of STDs out there! So, here's the scoop - all the stuff you need to know about the major STDs.
So, what if you think you might have been exposed to an STD? Even without symptoms, it's possible for a person to have an STD. If you've been sexually active in the past or changed partners, you need to be tested for STDs.
If you live in the Joplin, MO area, you can get free and confidential STD testing at LifeChoices. Click here for more info or to request an appointment. If you live somewhere else, we suggest you find out what's available for services in your area (places like the health department or with your doctor). No matter where you live - you need to be tested!
AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. HIV or the Human Immunodeficiency virus causes it. After being infected with HIV, a person does not develop AIDS until they contract an opportunistic infection that their weakened immune system cannot fight.
Some common symptoms of AIDS sufferers are:
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Night sweats
• Wasting syndrome
• Opportunistic infections, like pneumocystis pneumonia,
toxoplasmosis, thrush, tuberculosis, and more.
The HIV test can’t detect the actual HIV virus. Instead, it screens for antibodies in a person’s blood, after they have already been sick. It can take up to 6 months for a person to test positive for the virus—which means that there is no guarantee that a person did not give you the virus for up to six months after your last sexual encounter with them—“morning-after panic” can last up to six months. This is also important to know because a person can have HIV, test negative for it, and still give it to someone else.
You may also be thinking that you can tell by looking at them whether or not a person is infected with HIV or living with AIDS, but that isn’t always the case.
How can you reduce your risk of
contracting HIV/AIDS?
Condoms have been proven to fail up to 15% in reducing the risk
of HIV transmission, when they are used consistently and
correctly every time you have sex.
Knowing the level of risk
involved, are you prepared to gamble?
Postponing sexual activity until marriage with an uninfected
mate, and remaining faithful to that partner, is the only way to
be 100 percent confident of avoiding STD infection.
Gonorrhea is an infection caused by a bacterium.
It doesn’t just affect the sex organs. If Gonorrhea goes into a person’s bloodstream, it can damage other body organs, causing arthritis, organ breakdown, and more. Symptoms, if there are any, are more likely to show up internally in females and as pus from the penis in males.
Ladies, have you ever seen your
cervix?
Probably not—only the few lucky women who have had a scope
of their cervix get that honor. Usually, the only person to get
that birds-eye view is your gynecologist. This is another reason
this disease, which is curable, is dangerous—the symptoms often
are hidden from view, causing major damage before you know you
have the infection. Gonorrhea may go away, but unfortunately the
damage it leaves (PID) is irreversible.
How can you reduce your risk of
contracting Gonorrhea?
Condoms have been proven to reduce the risk of contracting this
disease only in men. Postponing sexual activity until marriage
with an uninfected mate, and remaining faithful to that partner,
is the only way to be 100 percent confident of avoiding STD
infection.
This is the most common bacterial STD—it causes about 3 mil new cases every year.
Chlamydia is caused by a bacterial infection, which means that it is completely curable if you knew you had it. It is sometimes called the silent disease, because a person often can have it, and have no visible symptoms of the infection. If there were symptoms to warn an infected person, it would not be such a problem. Unfortunately, 80% of women and 40% of men have the disease, but don’t know it.
Other problems with Chlamydia include Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) and ectopic pregnancy. PID is a leading cause of infertility in women:
1 case reduces fertility by 25%
2 cases, 50%
3 or more, virtually insures infertility
Ectopic pregnancy is fatal to unborn babies
There is a risk of hemorrhage and/or
death for the mother
Death is sure for the baby because un-implantation and
re-implantation is impossible.
How can you reduce your risk of
contracting Chlamydia?
No studies have proved whether or not condoms reduce the risk of
contracting this disease at all. Postponing sexual activity
until marriage with an uninfected mate, and remaining faithful
to that partner, is the only way to be 100 percent confident of
avoiding STD infection.
You have probably seen commercials for Valtrex or Acyclovir. There is a very expensive media campaign centered on Herpes-infected people. That’s because there is definitely a market—1 out of 5 people over the age of 12 in the US test positive for genital Herpes.
Herpes, like Syphilis, is a point-of-contact disease. Wherever a person comes into contact with it is where the symptoms show up. It can also be transmitted through bodily fluids and through skin-to-skin contact.
Outbreaks can occur for a variety of different reasons:
a. Stress
b. Hormonal changes
c. Poor diet
d. Lack of sleep
A person can have several outbreaks a month or can have no outbreaks in a lifetime. A person can infect someone else with or without visible symptoms.
How can you reduce your risk of
contracting Herpes?
Condoms have been proven to reduce the risk of women contracting
Herpes to some degree. Postponing sexual activity until marriage
with an uninfected mate, and remaining faithful to that partner,
is the only way to be 100 percent confident of avoiding STD
infection.
Human Papillomavirus is also known as HPV.
Outbreaks can occur for a variety of different reasons:
• High levels of stress
•Extreme hormonal shifts - pregnancy or menstruation
•Poor diet
•Not enough exercise or sleep.
Fifty to 75% of sexually active men and women acquire genital HPV infection at some point in their lives. About 5.5 million Americans get a new genital HPV infection each year, of which 10% will have it for life.
The warts may look terrible—the emotional and physical cost is high—but, treatment and even full recovery is possible:
a. Burning
c. Surgery
d. Freeze-drying
e. Acid treatment
Of the over 80 types of HPV, only two have a high risk of causing warts; still others cause cancer of the penis and cervical cancer. In fact, HPV causes all new cases of cervical cancer—more women die every year of HPV-related cervical cancer than do of AIDS (about 4000/year). Of even greater concern is the fact that this disease is not only one of body fluids—it is passed mostly by skin-to-skin contact. The virus lives in skin and mucous membranes (tissues that line the mouth, cervix, vagina, urethra and anus) of humans, so there is no way to be completely protected.
How can you reduce your risk of
contracting HPV?
Condoms have been proven to have virtually no effect on the
reduction of HPV transmission. Postponing sexual activity until
marriage with an uninfected mate, and remaining faithful to that
partner, is the only way to be 100 percent confident of avoiding
STD infection.
Syphilis is a bacterial infection that is curable with antibiotics, if you have symptoms that you recognize as syphilis-related. Damage related to syphilis infection often does not become serious until the late 2nd or early 3rd stage of the disease. Then it can become life-threatening. In the primary stage of infection, chancres are hard and painless. The sores can burst, or ulcerate, and become quite painful, but often, they just go away after an average of 3 weeks, which marks the end of stage 1. In the second stage of infection symptoms can be tricky because they seem like the flu or can appear as an odd rash. The symptoms, again, will go away after a couple of weeks, but without diagnosis and antibiotic treatment, the disease is still in your body, causing damage, and possibly being passed to other people.
It is possible to contract Syphilis from kissing or from oral sex. Syphilis is a point-of-contact disease; this means wherever you come into contact with the infection is where you will develop the first symptoms.
How can you reduce your risk of
contracting Syphilis?
There are no data to prove whether or not condoms reduce the
risk of contracting this disease at all. Postponing sexual
activity until marriage with an uninfected mate, and remaining
faithful to that partner, is the only way to be 100 percent
confident of avoiding STD infection.
This disease is important because it is so common and because of its effect on pregnant women—premature delivery and low birth-weight babies are common. Trichomonas, or “Trick,” causes more new infections every year than any disease besides HPV.
Most men infected with Trichomonas have no symptoms. If there are symptoms, it is often a lime green and foul smelling discharge. This infection can be mistaken for a yeast infection.
In order to prevent the continuous and repeat transmission of this infection, all sex partners should be treated and all sexual contact should be avoided until treatment (anti-microbial medication) is completed and neither partner has symptoms.
How can you reduce your risk of
contracting Trichomonas?
There is no data to prove whether or not condoms reduce the risk
of contracting this disease at all. Postponing sexual activity
until marriage with an uninfected mate, and remaining faithful
to that partner, is the only way to be 100 percent confident of
avoiding STD infection.