STIs: diseases you were embarrassed to ask about

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Sex is a deadly business. A couple of careless movements and you are sick. A life hacker understands what unprotected sex threatens and how to control your health.

What are STIs?

These are infections that are sexually transmitted, that is, during unprotected sexual intercourse of any kind. There are more than 30 such infections, but the list of the most common ones includes eight diseases:

1. Gonorrhea.
2. Chlamydia.
3. Trichomoniasis
4. Syphilis.
5. Human papillomavirus (HPV).
6. Herpes virus.
7. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
8. Hepatitis B.

Can you get them without sex?

HIV, hepatitis B, syphilis can be transmitted through blood. That is, even if a person has not had sexual intercourse, he can be infected.

It is almost impossible to catch an STI in the pool or in a minibus: pathogens do not live long without a host organism, and long-term contact of mucous membranes is needed for infection.

Who can get sick?

Anyone who is sexually active. STIs are widespread - about a million people are infected with them every day. The more often a person changes partners, the higher the risk of getting sick.

Why are STIs dangerous?

Complications from untreated infections are most dangerous. These are inflammatory diseases of internal organs, decreased immunity, infertility, prostatitis. A pregnant woman can infect the fetus, the result is malformations.

Hepatitis B affects the liver and can lead to cirrhosis.

Syphilis damages the skin, bones, and the nervous system.

HPV is the cause of cervical cancer.

HIV is a deadly infection that cannot be cured yet; it destroys the immune system.

What are the symptoms of STIs?

Gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis manifest themselves in about the same way: there are discharge from the genitals, itching, burning, edema, redness of the skin, urination becomes painful. A symptom of syphilis is an ulcer (chancre) on the genitals.

Herpes and HPV are noticeable during an exacerbation - rashes appear on the skin. Hepatitis B in the acute phase causes jaundice, nausea and pain in the right side. HIV has no specific symptoms, but the patient starts to get sick often, constantly feels weak.

Any STI can go on without symptoms at all. In this case, the carrier of the infection can infect a partner, and the disease itself will destroy the body.

How do I know if I'm healthy then?

Take tests. Be sure to do this after unprotected sex or if your partner has an infection.

A week or two after sexual intercourse, you need to come and take a smear to determine infections by PCR, and two months after the contact donate blood for HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B.

It is not worth going to the doctor right after sex: any infection has an incubation period when you have already become infected, but it is still impossible to find the causative agent of the disease. In HIV, this period generally lasts up to six months, so blood must be donated twice.

Even if all your sex is protected, you need to check from time to time. Ideally, twice a year, at least annually.

What to do to avoid getting infected?

Only to be protected (we do not offer abstinence). Unprotected sex - only with a trusted partner. Moreover, they were tested in the laboratory, that is, they passed the tests. Unromantic? Absolutely, but what can you do. There is even less romance in STI treatment.

Douching with antiseptics helps, but only slightly. It is possible to flush the mucous membrane with chlorhexidine or miramistin, but this does not guarantee that you will not get infected. It is better to use antiseptics as an adjunct to condoms and not get carried away with such hygiene procedures, because this can also provoke inflammation.

Is it true that condoms also do not fully protect?

Truth. In medicine, there are no absolute numbers at all. Condoms break, they are misused, they are forgotten, some infections can be transmitted not only through mucous membranes, but also through the skin. But this is the best defense at the moment.

How to be treated if sick?

It depends on the infection. Antibiotics, which are prescribed by a doctor, work well with bacterial ones.

It is more difficult with viral ones, there are no specific drugs against them. But we can control the course of the disease by taking special drugs.

There are vaccines for hepatitis B and HPV.

In any case, the treatment should be selected by a doctor. Self-medication and folk methods do not save you from STIs.

Do I need to treat my partner?

If you are diagnosed with a disease, your partner needs to pass all tests for STIs, and according to their results, undergo treatment.