Everything You Need to Know About Sexual Transmitted Diseases

What Are Sexual Transmitted Diseases (STDs)?

They are any diseases transmitted from one person to another through sexual intercourse. STDs transmit from one person to another through sexual contact, either genital, oral, or anal sex. It means that if you have any form of sexual relations with someone with an STD, you will contract it.

While sexual contact is the primary way of contracting an STD, some patients can get it through sharing needles, or exchanging body fluids like breast milk.

How to Know You Have an STD

STDs can be a little mischievous because you can have the infection without experiencing any symptoms. It is particularly common among men than women. Therefore, unless you and your partner consider STD testing near you before any sexual intimacy, you can get an STD from a man without any symptoms. However, when STDs do exhibit symptoms, they will include the following:

  1. Sores and rashes around the genitalia, the thighs, or the mouth.
  2. Unusual discharge from the penis or vagina – with a foul smell.
  3. Swollen, reddened, and painful testicle or labia majora and entire vulva.
  4. Bleeding or blood stains in urine.
  5. Pain during sex.
  6. Itchy vulva
  7. Hair loss – particularly in your genitals
  8. Fever, chills, body aches, and fatigue

​Types of STDs

You can get many infections through having unprotected sex with an infected partner. Some types of STDs you can get are:

  1. Chlamydia – is one of the most common bacterial STD, manifesting with a greenish or yellowish discharge and abdominal pain. Treatment involves taking prescribed antibiotics.
  2. Human papillomavirus (HPV) – is a multi-strain virus passed through close and intimate skin-to-skin contact. It is a severe virus that often manifests with warts in the genitalia and the mouth. HPV strains can even result in different cancers, including cervical and oral cancer. Although HPV clears out on its own, remember that it has no treatment yet can have critical effects on your health.
  3. Syphilis – is a bacterial infection that usually goes unnoticed, especially in the early stages. A chancre is the common identifier of syphilis, appearing in your genitals or mouth. While it is painless, the chancre is very infectious. Eventually, as the infection worsens, you will have other symptoms. Severe cases of syphilis will have critical symptoms that require urgent care for STDs to prevent permanent health damages. However, if you seek treatment early, antibiotics will be sufficient for removing the bacteria from your system.
  4. Gonorrhea – is a bacteria disease that does not exhibit any symptoms for several people. It manifests similar symptoms as most STDs and can be critical if left untreated.
  5. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) – in the past, HIV has claimed many lives, particularly for patients who did not seek urgent care near them. The viral infection advances in stages, having life-threatening consequences to your health. This infection significantly compromises your body’s immune system, making you vulnerable to other infections. Without getting medication at Katy urgent care hospitals, you can die from HIV. Treatment usually entails managing the disease through medication.

What Happens if You Do Not Treat an STD?

At Preferred Urgent Care, we recommend treatments for sexually transmitted diseases as early as possible to our patients because we understand the impact of leaving such infections untreated. Some of the consequences of failing to treat STDs in good time are more severe than others. They include the following:

  1. Infertility
  2. Pelvic inflammatory diseases
  3. Loss of vision and hearing
  4. Heart diseases and infections of the brain and spinal column
  5. Infections of the urethra, testicle, and prostate glands
  6. Infecting an unborn child – pregnant women can transmit viral or bacterial infections to their unborn babies. It results in health issues like pneumonia and other respiratory issues, blindness, and other eye-related infections.
  7. Death – STDs can lead to death, even though they are treatable. Some STDs like syphilis are fatal to unborn babies, which is why doctors advocate for STD testing in Katy, TX, for pregnant women.
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