Sexually transmitted diseases
Sexually transmitted diseases FAQ
What does STD mean?
STD is a short for Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and is an umbrella term for various infections caused by different pathogenic microorganisms, which are transmitted from person to person via sexual intercourse. Under sexual intercourse we mean all contact of genitalia with a mucous membrane of the sexual partner (such as the genital areas, the mouth and the anus). Thus it is possible to contract STDs through oral, anal or vaginal sex with an infected partner.
Who can catch a sexually transmitted disease?
This problem might concern anyone who has an active sex life, but the risk of infection is of course is highly variable. The more partners someone has either at the same time or consecutively, and the more often they have unprotected sex, the higher the risk of getting infected.
How many times can I get infected?
Unlike some contagious illnesses, where getting over the infection ensures long-lasting immunity, contracting and then being healed from sexually transmitted diseases provides no immunity for the infected person. This means that it is possible to catch the same disease over and over again. It is worth knowing that more than 30 pathogenic organisms can be transmitted sexually, and it is not rare to get infected with more than one type of disease during a single intercourse.
How will I know if I am infected?
A range of illnesses may be transmitted with sexual intercourse, all with different signs and symptoms. Their incubation period varies: some cause symptoms within several hours of having had sex, some come out within days or weeks, while other infections may take months to cause noticeable effects.
If the infection is mostly limited to the genitals, the symptoms may include abnormal penile or vaginal discharge, sores, blisters, various growths, pain and itching. But there are other infections which cause symptoms on various other parts of the body such as skin eruptions, fever, lymph node swelling, sometimes diarrhoea, vomiting and jaundice. It may also happen that there are no noticeable symptoms for quite some time, although the individual has been infected and is able to pass it on. In these cases, special testings (blood tests, diagnostics of vaginal or penile discharge) may be employed to spot the infection before the appearance of effects and symptoms.
What should I do if I detect these symptoms on myself?
The first and most important thing to do is to avoid any kind of sexual contact. Intercourse can worsen the conditions of a patient suffering from STD, spreading the infection towards the internal sex organs. Moreover, having sex while suffering from STD means you may infect your partner.
No matter how small the symptoms are, do not expect the problem to solve itself. Your symptoms may ease or even disappear for a while, but they are sure to return, as the infection is still present.
It is vital to undergo testing to diagnose the cause of the symptoms, because by simple observation it is not possible to tell which pathogen is causing the disease. Special tests need to be carried out for this reason.
The best thing to do is to visit our specialist with your partner, so both of you can be tested and treated. This way you can avoid the so-called ping-pong infection, where the untreated partner reinfects the other, healed patient.
Our Clinic treat both women and men.
What happens at the doctor’s office?
The medical specialist will ask you about your problem and the time it first arose. He or she will inspect the infected areas of skin and mucous membrane, feel the closest lymph nodes. They will take blood and/or a swab, then culture these samples or test them using PCR to determine the exact cause of the problem.
An accurate diagnosis is vital for proper treatment. Similarly important are post-treatment tests to determine if the patient is completely healed. The lessening or disappearance of symptoms does not necessarily mean that the infection has been eliminated.
Can these diseases be cured?
Sexually transmitted diseases may be caused by various pathogens. These include bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbae.
Most of these infections can be completely cured, especially if the patient sees a specialist early on, and follows his instructions properly.
Several STDs caused by viruses still pose a problem for treatment, since the viruses which multiply within human cells do not respond to drugs well. Thus in many cases, these illnesses can only be treated but not cured.
What happens if I don’t get treatment?
Treating the curable STDs is the more effective the sooner the patient sees a doctor.
This is why it is important for your partner to accompany you on your visit to the doctor, and get tested, because he or she might be infected even if there are no visible symptoms yet. Left untreated, these diseases lead to serious complications. Pathogens can attack the internal genitalia vital for fertility in both men and women, so chronic infection may cause infertility. In the case of pregnancy, the parents‘ STD poses a risk for the unborn child, because during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding the mother may infect the embryo or child.
There are also STDs which cause secondary inflammations of the joints and the eyes, as well as skin diseases, which are even harder to treat.
Today we also know that the development of cervical cancer is connected to infection with some types of a sexually transmitted pathogen, the human papilloma virus (HPV).
How can I protect myself against STD?
If you live in a relationship where you and your partner are both completely monogamous and neither of you have been infected at the beginning of the relationship, there is no danger of contracting STD.
If you have multiple partners, using condoms can lower the risk of infection.
If you notice any signs of infections on yourself or your partner, seek medical help at once, since early detection and specialized treatment can help avoid complications later.
What happens during the sexual health testing?
You will have a consultation with an experienced doctor who will discuss the circumstances around your request for a sexual health test. Depending on this discussion, the doctor will discuss your options for testing. Some sexual health tests require a blood test while others are tested from swabs from the vagina or urethra and/or a urine sample. Blood results come back within 24 hours while swabs and urine tests come back between 2 - 14 days. A nurse will call you to explain your results as they become available and in the event of a treatable infection, they will provide you with a prescription. You will always be advised to abstain from sex or to practice safe sex while your results are pending.
Condyloma/HPV
Condyloma acuminatum (Genital wart)
This disease, caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV) is the most common viral STD worldwide. HPV enters the basal cell layer of the skin through small abrasion in the skin, where it starts to multiply after a certain dormant period which varies from person to person. Thus the incubation period can be as short as 3-12 weeks but also can take years. The virus causes genital warts, the size, numbe and location of which also varies greatly. It is possible to remove the warts using several methods, but they are prone to reappear. In our Clinic we use surgical laser removal.
Other types of HPV play a role in the development of cervical and other genital cancers and colorectal cancer.
HPV and cervical cancer
Cervical cancer is caused by HPV. Cervical cancer is the second most common type of cancer in females around the world. Cervical cancer is asymptomatic in most cases, causing pain only in its advanced stage. Nearly all cases of cervical cancer are caused by one of the most common sexually transmitted disease, the human papilloma virus (HPV).
HPV might induce such transformations inside human cells that lead to cancerous stages. Most of the time the immune system conquers the infection, although in some cases the virus can remain. Cancer develops in people who have been infected with the same type of HPV for a long time. If an HPV infection is diagnosed, you need not be scared, but it needs to be constantly monitored.
Several years may pass after the original infection before normal cervical cells are transformed into cancerous ones. HPV infection and pre-cancerous changes, when diagnosed in time, can be treated, and cervical cancer is a curable disease.
What sort of problems can HPV cause in women?
There are almost 100 known types of HPV, of which 14 are risk factors for cervical cancer. Types are marked with numbers, in order of their discovery (eg. HPV 16). They are classified by risk type into 3 groups: high-risk (HR), low-risk (LR) and non-classified (NA).
High-risk does not mean that people infected will automatically develop cervical cancer. It means that these types of HPV, such as HPV 16 and 18 are recognized to cause cervical cancer. Nearly 70 percent of cervical cancer cases are caused by HPV types 16 and 18, while the rest of the high-risk types are responsible for the remaining 30 percent.
Infection with low-risk types can lead to the development of genital warts, the so called condylomas. HPV 6 and 11 cause 90 percent of genital warts.
The role of non-classified types in the development of cervical cancer is unknown. Based on current research the risk of these types is statistically minimal.
More Pathogens
Genital Herpes
Genital herpes is caused by types 1 and 2 of the human herpes virus. The painful symptoms appear 2-4 weeks after the infection on the genitals: red spots which turn into blisters then burst, leaving painful lesions which heal slowly. Swollenly lymph nodes, fever, malaise, painful urination are also typical symptoms. The initial symptoms pass within 2-3 weeks, but will reappear from time to time. The frequency and the severity of the recurrences varies from person to person. Women infected with geintal hepres may pass the disease to the baby during birth, which can cause serious neurological damage, disability and in many cases, the death of the infant.
Gonorrhea (the clap, gono)
The pathogen bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae causes acute inflammation of the urethra within a few days of getting infected, resulting in unusual purulent discharge from the penis and painful urination in men. Because it infects the cells of cervical canal in women, there are usually no or very few symptoms of the illness, so in many cases women only find out they are carrying the pathogen after learning about their partner's illness.
Treated in the acute phase, the disease is completely curable, while left untreated serious complications may arise, such as inflammation of the prostate, testicles, cervix or fallopian tubes, and infertility. Infected pregnant women may pass the disease to their newborn during delivery, resulting in severe conjunctivitis for the infant.
Chlamydia, Ureoplasma, Mycoplasma infections
The incubation period of Chlamydia trachomatis, Ureoplasma urealyticum, Mycoplasma hominis, and genitalium infections is only a few weeks, but many people are asymptomatic carriers of the disease for months or even years. In men these pathogens cause inflammation of the urethra which results in an unusual discharge from the penis and a painful or burning sensation when urinating.
In women the infection of the cervical canal (cervicitis) causes abnormal vaginal discharge sooner or later, while the infection spreading to the cervix and the fallopian tubes results in lower abdominal pain, irregular menstrual bleeding, later infertility or various problems during pregnancy (spontaneous abortion or premature birth). They may also cause arthritis. The sooner the diagnosis is made, the better chances there are for getting completely cured from the illness.
Syphilis
Syphilis is an illness which is relatively harmless if caught and treated early but potentially fatal if left untreated. It can cause stroke, paralysis, blindness and death. The number of cases of new diagnoses has risen significantly in the past decade. There are three stages of the disease, each with its own set of symptoms. Symptoms usually begin with a painless but very infectious sore on the genitals or on the mouth. These sores will infect other people on contact. These sores disappear after two – six weeks.
Secondary symptoms include skin rashes, sort throat and these can disappear within a few weeks. You can then not experience any symptoms for years before the disease enters its most dangerous phase when serious damage can be done to the body. These symptoms are difficult to spot, which makes testing very important. At our Clinic, the test for syphilis is a blood test.
HIV
HIV stands for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus.HIV is a virus in the retrovirus family , the virus is acting by weakening the body’s immune system which allow him to reproduce itself. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection. Because HIV has destroyed the immune system, the body can’t fight off opportunistic infections and cancer.HIV can enter through an open cut or sore, or through contact with mucous membranes. The virus is transmitted via sexual contact, sharing of needles and in-utero,during delivery and breastfeeding There is no cure for HIV or AIDS. However, medicines that fight HIV can provide HIV positive patients with nearly normal life expectancy. In this case it is important to find out about the infection as soon as possible. Early detection is the biggest indicator of better prognosis.
Trichomoniasis
Infection by the protozoan parasite Trichomonas vaginalis causes frothy, yellow-green vaginal discharge with a strong odor. The ample discharge causes secondary inflammation of the vulva. In men inflammation of the urethra might occur, but asymptomatic infection is also quite common.
Bacterial vaginosis
If the bacterial flora of the vagina is disturbed, the lactobacilli die and the vaigna loses its normal acidity, a mixed group of bacteria might dominate the flora of the vagina. These characteristically cause vaginal discharge with a fishy smell. Bacterial vaginosis usually co-occurs with the inflammation of the cervical canal (cervicitis), or can be the result of over-using antibiotics prescribed for other illnesses.
The predominant species seen in the swab culture is Gardenrella vaginalis, which plays a part in the development of the inflammation of the prostate in men.
Fungal infection
Fungal vaginitis causes a whitish or whitish-gray discharge, often with a curd-like appearance, sever itching and burning. If the symptoms persist or return, a swab culture needs to be tested for accurate diagnosis.
It causes the inflammation of the head of the penis, where itchy red patches appear. A white discharge of the penis is less common.
Modern diagnosis of STDs- PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)
Polymerase Chain Reaction is a revolutionary step forward in modern medical diagnostics. PCR is an accurate and sensitive method widely used in molecular biology which makes it possible to detect infectious pathogens by identifying their DNA. Its further advantage is that several pathogens might be detected in a single sample taken for PCR testing.
