Venereal Disease

Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment.

Diagnosis of an STD starts with your sexual history and current symptoms. If these suggest that you have an STD, your health care professional may do a physical or pelvic exam to look for signs of infection. Some signs of infection are a rash, warts or discharge.

Tests

Lab tests can find the cause of STD symptoms. They can also find sexually transmitted infections without symptoms.

- Blood tests. Blood tests can confirm the diagnosis of HIV or later stages of syphilis.
- Urine samples. Some STDs can be confirmed with a urine sample.
- Fluid samples. If you have open genital sores, your health care professional may test fluid and samples from the sores to diagnose the type of infection.

Screening

Testing for an STD or sexually transmitted infection in someone who doesn't have symptoms is called screening. Most of the time, STI screening is not a routine part of health care.

But when a person's risk for getting an STD changes, a health care professional may suggest screening. The risk level may change when a person is in a new setting with a higher risk, such as a prison or jail. Or it can be based on factors such as if a person has a history of sexually transmitted infections.

Experts recommend STI screening for:

- Almost everyone at least once. Guidelines suggest screening with a blood or saliva test for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS, for everyone ages 15 to 65. Experts recommend that people at high risk have an HIV test every year.

National guidelines recommend hepatitis B screening for people age 18 and older at least once, and with a test that includes a few different markers of the virus.

Guidelines also recommend hepatitis C screening for all adults.

- Pregnant women. All pregnant women will generally be screened for HIV, hepatitis B, chlamydia and syphilis early in the pregnancy.

Guidelines recommend gonorrhea and hepatitis C screening tests at least once during pregnancy for women at high risk of these infections.

They also suggest hepatitis B screening at each pregnancy for everyone.

-Women age 21 and older. The Pap test screens for changes in the cells of the cervix, such as swelling an irritation, also called inflammation, precancerous changes and cancer. Cervical cancer is often caused by certain HPV strains.

Experts recommend that women have a Pap test every three years starting at age 21. After age 30, experts recommend women have an HPV test and a Pap test every five years. Or, women over 30 can have a Pap test alone every three years or an HPV test alone every three years.

- Women under age 25 who are sexually active. Experts recommend that all sexually active women under age 25 be tested for chlamydia infection. The chlamydia test uses a sample of urine or vaginal fluid you can collect yourself.

-Reinfection by an untreated or undertreated partner is common. If you've been treated for a chlamydia infection, you should be retested in about three months. Get retested if you have a new partner.

Experts also recommend screening for gonorrhea in sexually active women under age 25.

-Men who have sex with men. Compared with other groups, men who have sex with men run a higher risk of getting sexually transmitted infections.

Many public health groups recommend annual or more-frequent STI screening for these men. Regular tests for HIV, syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea are particularly important. Evaluation for hepatitis B also may be recommended.

-People with HIV. Having HIV raises your risk of getting other sexually transmitted diseases. Experts recommend testing for syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia and herpes right away after being diagnosed with HIV. They also recommend that people with HIV be screened for hepatitis C.

Women with HIV may develop aggressive cervical cancer. So experts recommend they have a Pap test at the time of the HIV diagnosis or within a year of becoming sexually active if they are under 21. Then, experts recommend repeating the Pap test every year for three years.

After three negative tests, women with HIV can get a Pap test every three years.

-People who have a new partner. Before having vaginal or anal sex with new partners, be sure you've both been tested for STDs. However, experts don't recommend routine testing for genital herpes unless you have symptoms.

It's also possible to be infected with an sexually transmitted infection yet still test negative, which is most common if you've recently been infected.