Sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise, specially amongst young people.
What are sexually transmitted disease?
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) are those acquired through sex: oral, vaginal, or anal. Unless popular belief, they aren’t transmitted through kisses, unless there are wounds on the mucosa in your mouth.
Why are sexually transmitted diseases on the rise?
STDs cases are increasing: in a period of 5 years the cases of gonorrhea in the USA increased 67%, and syphilis 76%. Another fact: more than 20.000 women in the USA become infertile every year due to untreated STDs.
One of the reasons why STDs are so contagious is that they are often asymptomatic. That is, they don’t cause symptoms at first. However, they can cause complications in the long run (like pain and infertility) and they can be transmitted to other people.
Some STDs are caused by bacteria (like chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis…) and others by viruses. We can treat bacterial infections with antibiotics. However, some bacteria are developing resistance to those antibiotics: in 2013, 1% of gonorrhea samples were resistant, in 2017, that number increased to 4%.
As for viruses, they are harder to treat, as we don’t have any specific treatment for most of them.
Why are STDs dangerous?
Because, although they are sometimes asymptomatic, they can have terrible consequences afterwards. Some of them cause infertility, neurologic deficits, cancer and birth defects if you are pregnant.
You are saying STDs can cause cancer?
Yes, some of them. We know of some infections that can lead to cancer. In the case of STDs, there are two clear examples:
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) can cause hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a tumor in the liver.
And human papillomavirus (HPV) can cause cervix cancer. Also, if you get HPV through oral sex it can cause tongue and throat cancer, and if you get it through anal sex it can cause anus cancer.
What are other symptoms of STDs?
Chlamydia can cause vaginal bleeding. Secondary syphilis can cause rashes and sores, as well as mental illness and hair loss. Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes bumps, specifically genital warts. HIV causes many symptoms, including fever, rash…
How do you treat STDs?
There are many STDs, over 30. But the most frequent ones are 8: 4 of them are curable and 4 aren’t.
Remember curable and treatable are not the same. For example, HIV is not curable. However, it IS treatable, because there are drugs for HIV patients that can improve drastically their prognosis.
The 4 curable STDs are:
· Chlamydia
One of the most frequent STDs. It can affect anyone, but it is very common in young women.
At the beginning, most people who have chlamydia don’t know it because they often have no symptoms. Later on, however, it can cause vaginal discharge, pain, and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). If you don’t treat it, it can cause infertility. Also, chlamydia is a risk factor for getting HIV.
If you get pregnant you can give chlamydia to your baby during childbirth. If that’s the case, the baby can develop pneumonia and chlamydia conjunctivitis (as the baby’s head goes through the infected vagina). These can be severe and cause blindness and death if untreated.
Luckily, we can treat it with antibiotics like azithromycin or doxycycline (you must ask your doctor). Also, your partner will have to get treated as well.
· Gonorrhea
A very common infection in young people < 25 years. It’s similar to chlamydia. If untreated, it can cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and infertility in women. In men, it can cause epididymitis and sometimes, infertility. Less often, it can cause arthritis (infection of joints).
If you give birth to a child, they too can suffer from severe complications.
We can treat gonorrhea with with antibiotics such as ceftriaxone and azithromycin (ask your doctor).
· Syphilis
There are several stages in syphilis infection. At the beginning, there may be no symptoms. Sometimes it causes genital chancres (sores). After some time, it can cause a rash in the skin and enlarged nodes. Finally, after a long time, it can damage the brain, heart, and other organs. If we don’t treat it, it will cause brain damage, blindness, and other complications.
If a newborn is affected, it can cause death, brain damage, congenital deformities, and more.
From 2013 to 2017, the cases of syphilis in newborns nearly tripled (from 462 to 1306 cases) in the USA.
To treat syphilis we use the most well-known antibiotics: penicillin.
· Trichomoniasis
It’s caused by a parasite called Trichomonas vaginalis. The tricky thing about trichomonas is that they can affect not only your genitals but also the areas around them, so condoms won’t protect you 100% of the time. Of course, condoms will reduce the chance to get it, but you could still get infected a small percentage of the time.
If you are infected by Trichomonas, you’ll be more likely to get other sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV. Its treatment consists of antibiotics such as Metronidazole.
The 4 incurable STDs are:
· Hepatitis B
This disease can be passed through blood (sharing needles) and through sex. It can cause cirrhosis and liver cancer.
· Herpes
It is usually asymptomatic. However, when it is symptomatic, it causes painful sores around the genitals.
There is treatment (it is not curable but it is treatable) to reduce the severity and frequency of the outbreaks. This treatment is aciclovir.
· HIV (human immunodeficiency virus)
In recent years, there have been many advances in HIV treatment. Some decades ago, people with HIV would die of their disease. Today, with the right treatment, it has become a chronic disease, and patients can live long lives with a good quality of life.
· HPV (human papillomavirus)
Very, very common. Around 90% of sexually active people will acquire HPV. In most cases, HPV will go away spontaneously. However, in those cases that stay, it is incurable and can cause genital warts and cancer (both cervix and oral cancer).
There is a vaccine against HPV. Also, sexually active women should have a Pap test regularly. This is a screening test for cervix cancer.
How can you prevent STDs?
- Having safe sex through the use of condoms.
- Getting tested for STDs regularly. This way, the doctor can detect any STD as soon as possible and treat it as soon as possible.
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