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Often without symptoms — which is why testing protects more than waiting for signs.
Also known as: chlamydia · gonorrhea · syphilis · genital herpes · trichomoniasis
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Infections passed on through sex. Common: chlamydia and gonorrhea — often without symptoms, otherwise burning/discharge; syphilis (first a painless ulcer, later a rash); genital herpes (painful, recurring blisters); trichomonas (discharge, itching). Many go unnoticed yet stay contagious and can have consequences (e.g. infertility). Bacterial ones cure with antibiotics, viral ones are well managed. If in doubt or with a new partner, get tested — discreetly and without shame; condoms protect.
A blood test alone covers only part of it. Anyone who has had oral or anal sex has a swab taken there — otherwise chlamydia and gonorrhoea stay undetected at those sites and are passed on.
Tested too early does not mean safe: chlamydia and gonorrhoea after about two weeks, HIV after about six weeks, syphilis after three to six weeks, hepatitis B after two to three months. Anyone coming immediately after a risk asks the same day about a preventive treatment.
Without it the same infection comes back. Advice centres help to notify earlier contacts anonymously — it is uncomfortable and it is the only way that breaks the chain.
In women chlamydia usually runs entirely unnoticed and can nonetheless scar the fallopian tubes. So with changing contacts testing is done regularly and not only when something hurts.
They are passed on by close body contact. Anyone who has them is checked for the other infections too — not out of distrust, but because they often occur together.
Worldwide this single-celled organism is the most common curable sexually transmitted infection. It is often left out of testing because in men it usually stays silent.
Antibiotics clear chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis — but they do not protect against the next infection, and that is the most common misunderstanding. So treating partners belongs to it, otherwise it goes back and forth. For herpes and HIV the drugs hold the virus down, they do not remove it; on effective HIV treatment the virus is no longer transmissible. A check follows after two to twelve weeks depending on the organism, because a test done too early still reacts.
The time before a test turns positive is decisive: chlamydia and gonorrhoea after about two weeks, syphilis after three to six, HIV reliably after six weeks with today’s combination test. A test done too early says nothing. Chlamydia runs without symptoms in seven out of ten women and half of men — which is why regular testing is done with changing partners, regardless of symptoms.
Chlamydia and gonorrhoea run silently in the majority of women and in many men. That is why testing rather than waiting is the rule here.
Burning on passing water, changed or purulent discharge, bleeding after intercourse, lower belly pain in women, a pulling testicle in men.
In syphilis: a hard, painless sore that heals by itself after weeks — and is missed for exactly that reason. Later a rash often follows that also covers palms and soles.
Fever, sore throat, rash, swollen lymph nodes two to six weeks after a contact can be the first phase of an HIV infection. That is the point at which a test achieves the most.
A sore throat without a cold, back-passage trouble with mucus or blood, a red eye: these places are often forgotten in the workup, although they can be affected too.
The two commonest and most important tests — and they do not run through the blood but through the first urine or a swab. Anyone who has had sex at several sites has throat and rectum swabbed too; otherwise part of it stays undetected.
Two values with different tasks: one stays positive for life after a contact, the other shows how active it is right now. A painless sore that heals by itself does not speak against the illness — it belongs to it.
Today’s test picks up antibodies and a viral protein at once and is reliable after about six weeks. A confirmed positive result today means a well-treatable illness — under effective treatment the virus is no longer passed on.
Both can run silently for years and damage the liver. Hepatitis C is today curable with tablets in the vast majority of cases — so the test is worthwhile even when the risk lies far back.
Fever, sweating and faster breathing clearly raise the need. Drinking enough keeps the mucus thin and the circulation steady — in children and older people it is the most important point of all.
With low levels airway infections occur somewhat more often; correcting a deficiency makes sense, a high single dose during the infection does not act on it.
Needed by the defence cells. For lozenges at the start of a cold there are hints of a slightly shortened duration; at a high dose over months zinc lowers copper.
Antibodies and defence cells are protein. After several days with little appetite it is worth at least keeping the protein up — soup with egg, quark, yoghurt, lentils.
Clearly worthwhile and well studied when deficient; fewer data for the wider uses. Fat-soluble — check blood levels at high doses.
Hormonal contraception protects against pregnancy and against nothing else. That sounds obvious and is the most common reason the condom gets left out.
A past inflammation of the tubes or the epididymis can lastingly impair fertility — often without anyone noticing anything. Chlamydia runs without complaints in most; that is the reason for screening in young women.
STIs are treated with targeted medicines and prevented by protection. Said plainly so no one waits because of a home remedy — with chlamydia time decides fertility.
Offered against sexually transmitted infections. There is no proof of effect — and with chlamydia the time to treatment decides later fertility.
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