Sexually transmitted infections
Many patients believe that since they’ve been with the same partner for many years, they can’t get a sexually transmitted infection and therefore they don’t need to get tested. I want to talk to you very frankly about sexually transmitted infections, known as STIs or STDs.
Everyone can be infected with an STI / STD but those people at the highest risk are people with multiple partners and those whose partners have multiple partners. In reality, whether you’re single or married male or female, younger or older you can get an STI. This is why it is important to know your partner’s sexual history before you have sex without a condom. So what exactly are STIs? They are diseases caused by different bacteria and viruses and spread by sexual contact. STIs include diseases such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, hepatitis, syphilis, and HIV.
They can be transmitted through vaginal, anal, and oral sex. If you are pregnant, your baby’s at risk of being infected.
For babies, sexually transmitted infections can have severe lifelong consequences. The best way to help prevent the spread of STIs is to know your status. If you don’t know your status, here are some well-spread infections that everyone should know about.
Chlamydia
Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. It is the most common bacterial STI, mainly affects young people 15 to 24 years of age, and is more common among women. Between 1997 and 2011, the number of infected people nearly tripled.
The people most at risk of chlamydia are those who have multiple sex partners, those who practice unsafe sex and those who have a history of other STIs.
In men, symptoms can include a discharge from the penis, pain while urinating, along with tender or swollen testicles. The symptoms resemble those of gonorrhea. They can appear intermittently or disappear completely while the person remains infected.
In women, symptoms include abnormal vaginal discharge, bleeding between menstrual periods or after sexual intercourse. In both men and women, chlamydia can cause rectal itching or bleeding, as well as anal discharge and diarrhea.
However, chlamydial infections are asymptomatic most of the time. To diagnose chlamydia, a test is required. For women, screening involves a cervical exam with a swab sample. A urine test can also suffice. For men, a urine test is now equally effective and less painful than the traditional urethral swab.
Chlamydia is easily treated with antibiotics. You need to take the full course of medication and refrain from sexual relations, oral sex included until the treatment is complete. After symptoms disappear, the infection can linger in the body and still be contagious. To break the chain of infection and to avoid being re-infected, you need to alert all your sexual partners within the previous 60 days and encourage them to get screened, and treated if necessary. Your doctor can assist you in using our anonymous partner notification service.
Some effective ways to prevent chlamydia are practicing safe sex by always using a condom, avoiding sexual relations under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and limiting your number of sexual partners. You also need to get screened regularly for STIs. Your sexual health is important to us, and to you! So have fun, but be safe!
syphilis
Different countries around the world I’m here today to talk to you about syphilis, syphilis is caused by the spirochetes or bacteria called Treponema pallidum which is a fancy name but it’s also known as what causes syphilis infection.
It is most commonly spread by oral sex, vaginal sex, and anal sex but it’s actually very easily spread by oral sex which is not that similar to other STIs, I do often get a question for my patients how common is syphilis in the world as many people think it’s a disease of the medieval times and many famous figures over the years have been had been diagnosed with syphilis and many people think this list has disappeared, it’s far from disappeared and those two developed cities in the world are currently experiencing an epidemic of syphilis infection most commonly amongst gay but also amongst other high-risk groups such as commercial sex workers, the real problem with this infection is that when you first get in sex with someone it’s mostly painless so there’s no pain.
so you developed what we call it a chancre or an ulcer at the size of infection and this can occur anywhere in the body obviously as I mentioned before it’s most commonly going to occur in the lips area or the tongue because of oral sex around the vagina or vulva because of the journal set around the anal area because of anal sex however it can occur anywhere and I’ve often seen Shanker’s on the chest wall or any other part of the body because that’s where you first came into contact with your sexual partner now the difficulty with this is this is called primary syphilis when you first have the ulcer or the chancre but as I said it’s painless so patients often don’t see it and you’re especially not going to see it if inside your mouth or inside your vagina or inside your anal and wall and that’s the difficulty so it goes from primary syphilis to secondary syphilis so that’s more the more common stage of syphilis get to discover that and that can occur anywhere between two months after infection up to six months after infection so what is secondary syphilis secondly syphilis is in effect when syphilis is spread all around the body you most commonly get a rash on the soles of your feet and the palms of your hand is the classic place to give a syphilitic rash you also get a pink and fading rash on your torso or your chest you may also develop headaches because of a secondary neurosyphilis or dizziness or hearing the problems and you may have swollen lymph glands under your arms or in your throat so there’s a variety of symptoms for secondary syphilis and that’s why it’s called a mostly systems as the air disease because it can affect many different systems the third stage of syphilis is what we call Turkey our particular third stage and this is the more dangerous stage of syphilis this is in syphilis infection goes dormant or goes quiet for many years this can be anywhere from 10 years to 30 years in the olden days before we had adequate and good treatment on tests for syphilis, syphilis caused serious damage.
so turkey or third stage syphilis can affect your brain it can cause dementia or Alzheimer’s type 2 disease you can also affect your harsh the RV’s of your heart can cause aneurysms and also effects your bones so it can be very serious infection when it’s out of the third stage thankfully in most countries we have excellent tests for syphilis and it never gets that far and of course we have excellent treatment for syphilis, people most diagnosed with a blood test occasion is also diagnosed to a swab of the chancre or the ulcer which I mentioned earlier but the most common way of diagnosing syphilis is to a blood test
the fortunate thing about syphilis unlike what we spoke about before that gonorrhea is syphilis strangely has not become resistant to antibiotics and it’s still fully sensitive to penicillin this is terrific news for us because it makes the treatment of syphilis really easy
however syphilis treatment must be given through an injection in the bottom if you have infection that’s less than two years old we give you one treatment so one injection in the bum if this surface infection is greater than two years you may need up to three weeks of treatment and injections in your bone which is once per week over three weeks there are some tablet versions for people who may be for example allergic to penicillin, we have other treatments antibiotics for example doxycycline that we also can use, a decision between the patient and his doctor to be made.
HIV
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus it kills or damages the body’s immune system cells aids stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome it is the most advanced stage of infection with HIV HIV most often spreads through unprotected sex with an infected person it may also spread by sharing drug needles or through contact with the blood of an infected person women can give it to their babies during pregnancy or childbirth the first signs of HIV infection may be swollen glands and flu-like symptoms these may come and go a month or two after infection severe symptoms may not appear until months or years later a blood test can tell if you have HIV infection your healthcare provider can perform the tests or call the national referral hotline at
getting tested, even if you don’t have any symptoms. For example, some people with chlamydia, a common STI, don’t show any symptoms, but if left untreated, chlamydia can cause infertility in women and in men. The best defense against STIs is to use a condom. Other forms of birth control will not protect you against STIs. If you have any doubts, you should get tested for STIs today. We recommend that you talk openly with your partner and your doctor about your sexual history as well as your partner’s history. This conversation can be difficult, but protecting your health is most important. It is also likely to strengthen these relationships. The good news is that if you find out you have an STI/STD, you can be treated. In this case, your partner needs to be tested and treated as well. Here is some information about the most know about STI/STD.